Who Was She?

What was the reaction of other Esperantists and Zamenhof's to Lidia’s new faith? What inspired Lidia to travel to teach Esperanto across borders and oceans? Find out in episode 4 of Who was she? Podcast. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to Who was she? Podcast where I, Tara Jabbari share the stories of women throughout Baha’i history. This season is about the life of Lidia Zamenhof, an Esperantist and Baha’i who traveled through three continents to teach languages in efforts to bring unity to humankind. 

In the previous episode, we learned how Lidia met Martha Root who became her spiritual mother after Lidia decided to become a Baha’i. However, her new faith was not welcomed by all. Many Esperantists and Jews were not pleased with her decision, and believed she was abandoning her background. For Lidia, she never felt like she was abandoning her Jewish background because for her, it was not a religion. 

She revealed that after she became a Baha’i, people accused her of endangering the Esperanto movement, “especially in Poland, if I identified myself, bearing the name of the creator of Esperanto, with a new, unfamiliar and still unrecognized religion.’ But the lack of support didn’t sway Lidia’s passion for her new faith. She explained, ‘I value more highly my sincere relationship to God, whom I recognized revealing Himself in Baha’u’llah than I do pleasing “public opinion.”’

As for Lidia’s family, Adam and Zofia, Martha Root wrote that while they were kind to her, they simply were not very spiritual and did not understand Lidia’s beliefs. She wrote that when Lidia decided not to attend the Universal Congress of Esperanto in 1929 in order to save money for her eventual pilgrimage to Haifa, the most sacred place to Baha'is, her siblings laughed and teased her about it. They preferred she would stop trying to translate Baha’i Writings to Esperanto, to separate the family name Zamenhof from the Baha’i Faith. But they also did not try and keep Lidia away from Baha’is and certainly were hospitable to Martha.

As Lidia continued to read the Baha’i Writings, she realized that while They are originally written in Persian and Arabic, the largest body of translations was in fact in English. Therefore, she must learn English, so she can continue her spiritual journey and to be able to translate the Writings into Esperanto. 

She studied English for three hours a week and eventually started to translate the book, Baha’u’llah and The New Era by J.E. Esslmont. Published in 1923, it remains One of the most popular introductory books on the Baha’i FaithEsslemont explains the history and core Teachings of Baha’u’llah including the principle for a universal language and mentions Esperanto as a movement trying to achieve this principle. 

Martha Root was so proud of her spiritual daughter, writing, “She is her father’s daughter spiritually as well as physically. She is so just, so modest, so sincere and she is one of the finest translators I have ever met.”

In 1930, Lidia was granted permission to attend pilgrimage to Haifa. Today, on Mount Carmel, the Shrine is adorned with 19 terraces of elaborate gardens, encompassed by a Gold Dome and the Resting Place of The Bab, the precursor to Baha’u’llah and fellow prophet of the Baha’i Dispensation. 

But at the time Lidia visited, the Resting Place was  a simple structure of stone beside three large cypress trees. Every morning, Lidia came to the Holy Shrines to pray. She wrote of a particular day, “one morning, when I arose after a long prayer my eyes fell on a flower that was lying on the threshold. A red spider, a very tiny one, not larger than a pin head, was running around the calyx of the flower. I stretched out my hand and gave it a careless push with my finger. It seemed to grow still weaker and smaller and it fell down from the flower, down from the Threshold, down toward the ground. But suddenly there happened something that made me stare with a strange feeling: the little spider did not fall to the ground. It stopped half way as if the law of gravity ceased suddenly to exist for him - and then, as if in spite of this law it drew itself higher and higher, till the calyx of the flower gave him refuge again and hid him from my sight. Quick as lightening and dazzling as lightning there came to me a sudden realization that this little spider was a sign sent to me by God. A sign to tell me that a soul who still knew how to keep a ray of faith, be that ray as tiny as a spider’s thread, is not to be lost in despair; even from the depths of a chasm it will be led upward, till it reaches its heavenly abode, till it comes to God.” 

Lidia also spent time in Jerusalem, gifting the Hebrew University a manuscript her father had written in the Yiddish language. On her last visit to the Baha’i Shrines, she wrote, “As I was praying, the feeling of despondency began to grow less heavy. Little by little the despondency disappeared. And when it had disappeared a joy came. A joy with no outward care. A joy born in the heart as if the heart was suddenly touched by a smiling sunray. That joy kept growing as a seatide, until it flooded my soul. And still, it kept growing until it was so great that if it were one degree greater, it would simply cause my heart to burst! All sadness, all doubts, all the dark hours of battle were gone and the joy was there, a heaven-sent joy, a divine confirmation. Whoever receives such a confirmation forgets his doubts. Whoever experiences once such  joy, cannot be truly unhappy even in the darkest hours of his life.” 

Lidia returned to Europe with more drive to not only teach Esperanto but also the Baha’i Faith to bring about universal peace. She will not only teach both of her passions in Europe but it will bring her to other continents.  

This has been Who was she? Podcast, follow us on our Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest @whowasshe podcast. And please, rate and subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast. Logo was designed by Angela Musacchio. Music was composed and performed by Sam Redd. I am your host, Tara Jabbari.