Esperanto has 1,000 native speakers? 2024 Dec 17
In light of Zamenhof Day (two days ago, whoops), the wiki page for the constructed language Esperanto's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, claims the language has an estimated 1,000 native speakers. It does? Really?

The wiki cites sources, as it should, giving us two. The first is Ethnologue, a group which studies all languages, and which contrarily makes no claim towards there being any native speakers of Esperanto. Huh.

The second wiki source listed, though, is an article on the online language school Babbel's website called What Is Esperanto, And Who Speaks It? The article text is as you'd expect from the headline, and includes this quote: "And even though Esperanto was made to be an auxiliary language, there is a cohort of about 1,000 people who speak Esperanto as their first language, a few of whom were interviewed in the video above." The 'video above' is six minutes of casual interviews with ten-ish people entirely in Esperanto (and with no subtitles, in any language), so whether these people are native speakers and if so, how they came to be, is not possible for me to determine.

The next line of the Babbel article claims, "The most famous native speaker is Hungarian-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros, whose father was a devotee of the language." George Soros is a Jewish banker, liberal political donor, and conspiracy magnet, but he is also the son of Tivador Soros, an Esperanto author who changed his family name from Schwartz to Soros supposedly because of the Esperanto meaning will soar (or maybe he just was a fan of palindromes). But the Soros family was very much living in Hungary, and even if Tivador did teach his children Esperanto at a young age, surely they must have primarily used Hungarian in their day-to-day life, right?

This 2016 article from Tablet with a title referencing George Soros and Esperanto claims that while the invented language has an active and thriving community, it has no native speakers: "It’s probably better to spend your time learning Lithuanian or Tamil, which, unlike Esperanto, stand at the center of a living culture, with native speakers and a literary tradition." And later, "Esperanto was never supposed to be a native tongue, but rather an adaptable second language that would form a bridge between foreign speakers." But what about George Soros? Here, the article contradicts itself: "One currently world-famous Jew is that rarest of birds, a denaskulo (native speaker of Esperanto): George Soros." That and a few sentences following is his only mention in the article, although it does go on to mention an "Esperantist refuge called Bona Espero in rural Brazil." There, presumably, children could be raised speaking Esperanto natively... unless "the children prefer to speak Portuguese rather than Esperanto." [Aside: the article's worth a read for its detailing of the complicated relationship between Zamenhof, Esperanto, Judaism, and Zionism.]

In 2010, the New York Times says about George Soros: "He also recounted what it was like growing up in Budapest in the 1930s and ’40s in a home where Esperanto was spoken, making him one of the few native speakers in the room, if not the planet." But this contradicted by a Transparent Language Esperanto Blog 2011 post by (founder of the Esperanto-language wikipedia) Chuck Smith where the word "native" is crossed out in the quote "George Soros is the wealthiest native Esperanto speaker." Smith, in an interview with Esperanto advocate Humphrey Tonkin, prompts Tonkin into saying: "George Soros is not a native Esperanto speaker. Esperantists have made that claim on numerous occasions (it’s all over the Internet), but it’s simply not true. Soros learned Esperanto from his father when he was growing up, but his native language (his only native language) was Hungarian." (Tonkin also disputes that the name Soros was picked with its Esperanto meaning in mind.) But What Tonkin says makes sense, growing up learning a language even from childhood is not the same as being a native speaker. A native speaker of a language is a term without precise definition but connotes the person's mother tongue – the language in which they think.

Unreferenced on the Zamenhof wiki page is another wiki page, called Native Esperanto Speakers. While explicitly stating George Soros is not a native Esperanto speaker, it lists only five claimed native speakers by name, all notable people. First is Daniel Bovet, who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of antihistamines. His wiki page claims he's a native Esperanto speaker (sourced to fellow tertiary source NNDB, which itself cites no sources) while neither his biographies at the Nobel Prize nor the Royal Society even mention the language. He also once claimed that tobacco increases its user's intelligence, so, um...

Second is Petr Ginz, a novelist and teenage Holocaust victim whose diary was published posthumously. While he was the son of Esperantists and fluent in the language, his novels and diary were written in Czech, arguing against him being a true native Esperanto speaker. Third is Carlo Minnaja, a mathematician and author of the Esperanto-Italian dictionary. While undoubtedly fluent at a young age, being that by the time he was 20 he was on the board of the World Esperanto Youth Organization, I can find no further claim that he is a native speaker.

But then we have people who may actually be the real deal. Kim J. Henriksen's claim is strong since he has had said about him by American linguist and Klingon-speaker Arika Okrent that he "appeared not to appreciate how bizarre it was to be a native speaker of an invented language. Esperanto was the medium of his parents' relationship and of the entire home life of their family." She then adds, "Before you start getting indignant on his behalf, know that growing up he had plenty of contact with the world outside his home and learned to speak Danish as a native too. But he considered Esperanto his true mother tongue. For Kimo, Esperanto was a completely normal fact of life in the same way that Polish would have been if both of his parents had been Polish."

And lastly we have Ino Kolbe, an author and proof-reader of the Esperanto-German dictionary. The wiki says "Her parents were so dedicated to the Esperanto movement that the only language they used around her was Esperanto; therefore before entering school she learned her German only from other children," and that she grew up in a hotbed of Esperantism and at a time when even the League of Nations was considering the language's use in its General Assembly. (The source is a German newspaper; the link is dead but presumably trustworthy.)

So are there really 1,000 native speakers of Esperanto out there in the world, as the original statement claims? Are there 1,000 people who were raised by dedicated, diehard Esperantists, speaking the constructed language in their households and utopian villages? The existence of at least three scholarly papers would seem to argue towards this claim's substance, each being a study of native speakers of the language. The 2001 study by Benjamin K. Bergen of the UC Berkeley Linguistics Department of eight native speakers claims to be the first ever (investigating the 'nativization' of Esperanto), even though the 1996 study by Renato Corsetti, an Esperantist, (in Italian and Esperanto) documents 350 families with Esperanto-speaking children, saying the closest linguistic parallel seems to be the Hebrew revival. The 2005 study, again by Corsetti and now joined by Maria A. Pinto and Maria Tolomeo, traces development of Esperanto-speaking children but points out that they all have "two or three mother-tongues."

Let's end this long, pointless, rambling entry by linking to another Transparent Language Esperanto Blog post, this one from 2013 and titled 3rd gen native Esperanto speaker: Nicole! Here, Chuck Smith says, "Some people don’t believe that native Esperanto speakers exist." Yes, this is true. And while the article is updated with the face-palm correction that she's actually only a 2nd-generation native speaker, a native speaker she is. Nicole when asked about it says, "Well, I can’t compare that to what my life would’ve been like as a non-native Esperanto speaker, of course. However, it wasn’t annoying at all, and often it was nice to have a 'secret' language. It’s difficult to describe, but it was part of the family and somehow always felt 'nice.'"

Do I Have to Pay to Pray? 2024 Dec 4
This Building Jewish Bridges article attacks the topic of why many Reform and Conservative Jewish congregations charge money for High Holy Day service tickets and "membership" for the rest of the year. The model of tickets and membership is an old solution to the basic problem of the money needing to come from somewhere. Religions which evangelize lean into their faithful for monetary support, using money from the true believers to advance their mission of proselytizing their message (and membership). Other religions literally or de facto expect their leaders to take vows of chastity in order to minimize costs. And some other religions have been around for so long that they're basically able to subsidize operations by running from an endowment.

None of these are the case with Reform and Conservative Judaism. Wealthy Jews do tend to contribute more than their fare share, but that's been a shrinking pool as culture has shifted and changed. Jewish clergy are just regular people, not monks cloistered from everyday life. And congregations pay to support the over-arching organizations, not the other way around.

So, you're not paying to pray. You're paying to have a building to pray in, a leader to guide you.

Open Letter to President Trump 2024 Nov 14
I wholeheartedly agree with and have added my name to the letter to President Trump written by Rabbi Rick Jacobs and the Union for Reform Judaism over which he presides and of which I am a member:

Dear President Trump,

I hope and pray that in your next term in office, you will be a president for all Americans, advancing the principles of democracy, justice, and commitment to rule of law that have been sources of strength for our nation throughout its history.

As an American and a Reform Jew, I am committed to the protection of the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. I will support any serious effort by your administration to combat antisemitism, and I will champion a strong U.S.-Israel relationship that fosters democracy in and security for the Jewish state and demands the rights, well-being, and national aspirations of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank are upheld.

At the same time, I will join in fierce opposition to any further efforts to eviscerate reproductive rights, to target the safety and rights of the LGBTQ+ community, to harm communities of Color, or to undermine the health of our air, water, and land. I will join in defense of the security of immigrants and the right to claim asylum. I will vehemently oppose the weaponization of political power against individuals and institutions that are core to our democracy, including the courts and the press. And above all, I urge an end to the repeated demeaning of women, the use of hateful language against those who hold different views, and the persistent coarsening of our political culture.

We are all made more whole when we treat others with the respect every human being deserves. Please, help heal the wounds our nation bears and govern as a president for all Americans.

Anti-Zionism has always been thinly-veiled Anti-Semitism 2024 Nov 4
In 1967 hostility between Israel and its Arab neighbors broke out into the full-fledged Six Day War.

There were the predictable protests against Israel from around the world, but especially from the USSR, which withdrew diplomatic relations. Poland, then a member of the Soviet Bloc, was at the time experiencing a mass student protest against the Communist party in charge. The Polish government responded by not just cracking down on the students, but by also blaming the crisis on "Zionists" who they said supported "imperial" and "nationalist" Israel in the Six Day War. Except this supposed anti-Zionism was actually a coordinated purge of all officials of Jewish ancestry from the Government and Party and Military, regardless of their support of Israel.

One antisemite in particular, Mieczysław Moczar, led this Polish campaign as a diversion of energy away from the student uprisings, channeling people's frustrations away from party leadership and instead to "Zionists" aka Jews. He eventually even claimed the student protests were originally instigated by Zionist troublemakers (complete nonsense).

Moczar of course rebuffed accusations of that he was an antisemite and said also by the way Poland had no role to play in the Holocaust. Which considering that Poland was once again singling out Jews and forcing them from their Polish homes, with both the right- and left-wing politics expressing distrust of Jews, that is certainly an interesting thing to say. Let us remember that prior to the Holocaust, Poland was home to 3.5 million Jews. After, only 350,000. By the time Moczar was removed from power, a paltry 5,000 Jews remained in the country. The goal of ridding Poland of Jews finally complete, Polish Communists officially closed their campaign of "Anti-Zionism" in 1968.

A silver lining to the whole affair, if one can be allowed, is that the open campaign of antisemitism so discredited party leadership in the eyes of Poland's intelligentsia and emigrants that it eventually led to the collapse of the Communist Party in the country and Poland's official apology to the world's Jews and Israel in particular in 1988, and additional condemnations afterwards.

But let us remember that Anti-Zionism has always just been antisemitism.

My Auschwitz Vacation -- On Holocaust Tourism 2024 Oct 4
The experience Harper's author Tanya Gold relates in this article is very different than my visit to Auschwitz in 2008. But then my experience was on a March of the Living trip sponsored by my local JCC, so perhaps that shielded me from the worst parts of Holocaust kitsch. But it doesn't surprise me to learn that this is happening. It's not dissimilar from the many other plights of people turned into tourism, such as Native Americans.

Luis Moises Gomez 2024 Sep 9
Luis Moises Gomez (born in 1660, died in 1740) was a Sephardic Jew who immigrated to New York in 1703 and established what is now the earliest-known still-standing Jewish home in America. His family and their home are now the site of a museum, which preserves their history.

In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University 2024 May 9
I whole-heartedly echo the opinions and sentiments expressed in this open letter signed by several hundred students at Columbia University speaking out against the antisemitism and antizionism they are bearing witness to on their campus and in their community. Antizionism in particular has become only the latest blood libel of which Jews are accused, now adapted to the modern demons of colonialism and genocide. It fills me with respect that such a well-balanced but fiercely defensive letter is being published at a prominent institution.

Pagan Yahwism 2024 Mar 8
The Torah's full of instructions to the Hebrews to not worship other gods or idols. This leads the modern reader to beg the question – what was going on back then that this was a problem? Here's a 2001 article from the Biblical Archeology Review which surveys what's been dug from the ground from that era, and how widespread idolatry and paganism was, and how deeply it infiltrated the everyday lives of ancient Hebrews.

Birkat Hachama, the Blessing of the Sun 2024 Feb 26
Apologies for linking to Wikipedia, but it's the most comprehensive source I've found for this Jewish blessing of The Sun. It is recited only once ever 28 years, when The Sun completes its great cycle. The blessing is interesting for the relative rarity with which its recited, and also for its origins in astrology. Unusual for Jewish observances, its date is not fixed on the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, but rather because it is based on the sun itself, it is much more consistent in its date on the western Calendar – a fact which escaped nobody's notice when Rome switched from Julian to Gregorian calendars in 1582. We are currently in an era of this blessing taking place on April 8, with the next observance in the year 2037. It will shift to April 9 beginning in 2209.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer's speech on American antisemitism 2023 Dec 6
Quoting wholly from the linked post: '“The most extreme rhetoric against Israel has emboldened antisemites who are attacking Jewish people simply because they are Jewish.” These attacks, Schumer said, conjure up the history of millennia in which Jews were slaughtered. “When Jewish people hear chants like ‘From the river to the sea,’ a founding slogan of Hamas, a terrorist group that is not shy about their goal to eradicate the Jewish people, in Israel and around the globe, we are alarmed.”'

The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism 2023 Nov 30
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' speech about the mutation of antisemitism into antizionism feels horrifically prescient, given what's going on right now.

From the video's official description:

'The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.' On 27th September 2016, Rabbi Sacks delivered a keynote address entitled 'The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism' in the European Parliament. The speech opened a conference on the future of Jewish communities in Europe hosted by Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament. To read a transcript of the speech, please click here.

‘Antizionism’ is the most lethal form of antisemitism out there 2023 Nov 30
I've been quiet about the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and their aftermath, but not because I haven't been paying attention. Rather, I've been horrified by the progressive worlds' reaction, abandoning its principals of self-determination for all people, and descending into blatant antisemitism. This article sums up rather succinctly the thin facade that is the vogue euphemism 'antizionism,' highlighting the reality that "No other form of antisemitism—the most obvious example being the Jew-hatred espoused by white supremacists and other far-right groups—is this accessible."

From "Anti-Semite and Jew" by Jean-Paul Sartre (1946) 2023 Oct 10

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

I Married a Jew 2023 Oct 10
An anonymous Atlantic article from January 1939 sheds some interesting perspective on the changing attitudes towards Judaism and interfaith marriage in America. Unfortunately it seems like the article is now behind a paywall (it wasn't originally), so if the main link doesn't work, try this one.

The Opposite of Faith 2023 May 28
Sometimes the most troubling portions of the scripture are the most revealing to analyze. In this post on the Reform Judaism Torah study blog, the author gives an particularly insightful analysis of the 'problematic' practice of sotah – a trial by ordeal for a woman suspected of infidelity.

Bay Area Support for Israel Isn't Unconditional 2023 Mar 15
This article documents the Bay Area Jewish response to Israel's proposed judicial reforms – laws that would allow Knesset to override the Supreme Court's decisions. I am tracking this story closely, the latest sign of a growing divide between American Judaism and Israeli politics. What do we do with a Jewish state which doesn't uphold our Jewish values?