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I've been thinking about this as well. My angle for combining Zamenhof
with Sholem Aleichem (very different people, as my childhood friend who
is a linguist, Esperantist, and Yiddishist advised me) has not panned out
as yet--I've only contacted two Jewish organizations so far--but I also
haven't come up with a tangible proposal. It would be nice to do
something this year for the Zamenhof sesquicentennial. <br><br>
Given your difficulties in organizing the previous symposium at the
Holocaust Museum, I'm guessing pursuing them further would be futile,
unless one were to convene some serious scholars on the subject, get some
more survivors to participate, and provide more documentation for their
archives. Documentation and scholarly research is what they are
interested in, and I sense they would not be amenable to another round
unless we could substantially build on what was presented last time. It's
nigh impossible, from what I gather from the zamenhofologo google group,
to secure any interest among the Israeli scholarly community. Imagine how
much more difficult that's going to be here.<br><br>
I also think it's time for me to write to Esther Schor at Princeton,
whose upcoming talk at the National Yiddish Book Center has been
postponed.<br><br>
2010 is probably more feasible for a major event, and we might be able to
get people from out of town to participate as speakers or panelists. One
must consider the difference between an event centered around Zamenhof
and one centered around Esperanto more generally. Dr. Schor, however,
were she willing, could speak on both. <br><br>
Still, it would be nice to do something, even modest, here in DC, before
the end of the year. Not sure what, though. My angle is Zamenhof (and
Esperanto) in historical context, with an eye towards the various
audiences interested in such matters, rather than a propaganda fest,
though obviously literature tables and informational brochures would be
part of the event. I'm trying to remember other precedents that would
apply. I remember many years ago we did a multilingual poetry reading in
a public library, only part of which was in Esperanto. Also, many years
ago I was invited to a creative writing class at Howard U. to talk about
Esperanto and linguistic creativity.<br><br>
More brainstorming is needed.<br><br>
PS: Our most modest effort for this year might take place in a public
library or comparable public space. But this also brings to mind our
general (in)activity. It looks like I missed the only meeting we're going
to have in Cosi's this month. One person can't be everyone's babysitter,
to be sure, but it would be nice to expand our range somewhat. For
example, back in the late '80s and '90s we had a couple rounds of
literary groups. I can't afford to subscribe to magazines or buy books,
but what has changed decisively in our favor is the Internet. There's so
much material on the web, the problem of availability via purchasing or
photocopying material is obviated for a huge quantity of material.
Presumably more older material not on the web, out of print, and not on
the market, could be scanned. That is a pain in the ass for me, though,
as I'm only working with messy OCR and HTML editing. If I had the
software to produce PDF files, I do could a lot more than I'm doing
now. <br><br>
At 01:51 PM 8/30/2009, Jim Ryan wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Thank you for posting these, and
for including my talk at the Holocaust Museum. We definitely plan
to try for another similar event to coincide with the 2010 LK here.
I plan to contact Mrs. Balbin (I have been informed that Mr. Balbin now
has Alzheimer's) and see if we can make a formal presentation of some of
his works on that occasion. <br><br>
A thought: We're also thinking about a public event this year to
commemorate the sesquicentennial of Zamenhof's birth. Should we try
to do something with the Holocaust Museum for that occasion as
well? It took endless and tireless work for me to set up the event
in 1995 -- I had to keep contacting many minimally responsive (or totally
non-responsive) people for about a year to make it happen. (BTW,
Mr. Balbin was slated to attend that event but got sick at the last
minute.) So I'm not sure we want to try for two events, one this
year for the LLZ sesquicentennial and another next year for the LK -- but
perhaps we should try? If we have to choose one or the other, I
would think next year's LK is more important, since congress attendees
would attend the event en masse. <br><br>
If not the Holocaust Museum for LLZ in 2009, then what? <br><br>
Opinions welcome. <br><br>
Ralph Dumain wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Some of you will remember the
ESW's seminar at the Holocaust Museum, at which Jim Ryan presided. A
Russian Esperanto site has preserved relevant materials:<br><br>
<b><a href="http://miresperanto.narod.ru/en/articles/life_of_lidia.htm">
Notes on the life of Lidia Zamenhof</a><br><br>
<a href="http://miresperanto.narod.ru/en/articles/holocaust.htm">About
Esperanto Society of Washington and the Holocaust Museum</a><br><br>
<a href="http://miresperanto.narod.ru/en/articles/strangled_cries.htm">
STRANGLED CRIES (A profile of poet Julius
Balbin)</a></b></blockquote></blockquote></body>
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