April 14 1917 – 22 Nisan 5677
Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, creator of the international language Esperanto, died in Warsaw. Born in Bialistok in 1859, then part of the Russian empire, Zamenhof was an ophthalmologist and an amateur linguist who spoke Yiddish, Russian, Polish, German, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English. The concept of creating an international language occurred to him while still in high school; Bialistok was a mixing pot of many different nationalities including Poles, Russians, Germans, Lithuanians, Tartars and Jews, and differences of nuance and understanding often resulted in arguments. Zamenhof’s hope was to bridge the gaps between people with a common international tongue. Esperanto has relatively simple grammatical rules, with many prefixes and suffixes, making it accessible and easy to use.
The name Esperanto means “the hopeful one;” Dr. Lejzer (Eliezer) Zamenhof signed himself “Dr. Esperanto” on the cover of his textbook for the language, in the hope that its use would promote peaceful coexistence between different people and cultures.
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