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XIII. From Zionism to Homaranism 

In addition to his theoretical work on Yiddish grammar, Zamenhof had devoted time 

and energy during his student years to the question of the future of the Jews. He later 

wrote to Alfred Michaux that, when he was at university, he was “a keen Zionist”and 

“successfully founded the first Zionist groups” (Mi estas Homo 101) He provided further 

details of this activity in an interview he gave to the London newspaper The Jewish 

Chronicle in 1907: 

I have always had a strong interest in the social life of my people and, in 

my youth, I was a keen political Zionist. That was many years before Herzl 

appeared on the scene and before the idea of a Jewish state became popular 

among Jews. As early as 1881, while I was a university student in Moscow, 

I held a meeting with fifteen of my fellow students and put forward a plan 

that I had thought out. According to my plan, we would found a Jewish 

colony in some unpopulated part of the world. This colony would represent 

the beginning and would become the centre of an independent Jewish state. 

I was able to convince my fellow students and we formed something that 

was, or so I believe, the first Jewish political organization in Russia. (Mi 

estas Homo 115-116) 

When Zamenhof graduated from university in 1884, a controversy was raging in the 

Jewish press over the future of Russia's Jews. The newspaper Razsvet often suggested 

emigration to the United States, Spain, Palestine, or Argentina, but the rival papers 

Russkij Jevrej and Voshiod were critical of these proposals and advocated seeking a 

solution within Russia to the problem facing the Russian Jews. 

The twenty-two-year-old Zamenhof was a participant in the discussion about 

emigration in Razsvet. In January and February 1882, in issues 2, 3, 4, and 5, his lengthy 

article What Action Should We Ultimately Take? was published under the name 

Gamzefon. In this article, Zamenhof advocated mass emigration of the Jews and 

examined both Palestine and the United States as potential destinations. He argued 

against Palestine where he felt the Jews would encounter hostile Christians, Turks and 

“wild, fanatical robber groups living in Palestine and the surrounding regions and 

thumbing their noses at any authority.” He proposed instead that the Jews emigrate to 

some sparsely populated territory of the United States, attract Jews there from around 

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the world and declare the territory a Jewish state within the framework of the United 

States. 

In the debate over whether to choose the United States or Palestine, Zamenhof 

finally joined the supporters of the Palestine solution “in order not to fragment himself” 

and published the article, Under a Common Flag!, in which he made an emotional 

concluding appeal: 

The way lies open before us and the goal is clearly defined. Let us colonize 

Palestine and unite our people in the ancient homeland, family after family, 

group after group. [...] Let us pay the Arab twice or three times its value and 

he will sell us as much land as you need; a golden key will easily open 

every Turkish chancery. [...] Like bees from flowers and plants, we will 

succeed in bringing into our country divers traits drop by drop, one drop at 

a time. Through concerted action, we will succeed in returning life and 

glory to the land. Every wealthy person who settles there will perform 

thereby a great service for his people; every school founded there will be a 

step forward toward the clearest goal [...] Let us join together, brothers, let 

us rise up beneath the only flag capable of uniting us! On that flag is written 

the one word “Homeward!” (Mi estas Homo 26) 

Zamenhof became active in the Chibat Zion (Love of Zion) movement, whose aim 

was to found agricultural colonies in Palestine. Chibat Zion's members were called 

Chovevey Zion (Lovers of Zion) and, later, the movement itself adopted the same name. 

In February 1882, Zamenhof founded and led the student society Shearith Israel in 

Warsaw. He wrote the bylaws, had them printed and distributed them, organized 

meetings, concerts and dances, recruited members and set up a Jewish library. He also 

collected contributions from different groups for colonies in Palestine and sent them on 

to Germany. 

Shearith Israel and the general association of Chibat Zion merged in August 1883 

and the twenty-three-year-old Zamenhof chaired the Warsaw group's action committee. 

One of his responsibilities in that role was to stay in touch with the Bilu activists, a 

socialist youth group belonging to Chibat Zion who went to Palestine and began work 

there. Zamenhof himself intended to go to Palestine but decided to finish his university 

studies first. 

Gradually, though, Zamenhof's Zionist activism diminished. He did not attend the 

first conference of Chibat Zion in Kattowitz in 1884 and once he received his medical 

degree at the end of that year he was only a passive observer of Jewish social activism. 

Yet although his active involvement ended, he did not stop looking for a solution to the 

Jews' problem. After seventeen years of reflection, he published his thoughts in January 

1901 in a 78-page book, Gillelizm. Projekt