Zamenhof, Jews, and the Making of Esperanto

There are, I think, some interesting (to me, at least) parallels between Zamenhof's "Hilelismo" pamphlet and, say, some of the work of Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism. There are very sharp distinctions between them, to be sure -- and, much as I respect Zamenhof's intentions, I think there are plenty of good reasons why Reconstructionism flourished (at least by Esperanto standards of flourishing -- approximately 2% of US Jews who belong to a synagogue belong to a Reconstructionist one)and Hilelismo didn't.

I would love to someday learn more about this from someone who knows what he's talking about. I've seen Cherpillod's book on Zamenhof and Judaism and found it somewhat disappointing, though I'm sure he's an excellent linguist. There's also
Maimon's book "La kaŝita vivo de Zamenhof"
which has a little, but perhaps not quite what I'm looking for.

At the LK, Randy Dean pointed out to me that the book center has an Esperanto textbook in Yiddish that you can download for free. (By Joseph Bresler, 1909) See http://www.archive.org/details/nybc202624

Dr. Schor has been doing good work for Esperanto in academia. She wrote a thoughtful review of Sutton's "Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto".

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Tim Westover
Vice President, Esperanto-USA
timwestover (che) yahoo (punkto) com