Homaranismo

Homaranismo (roughly: "Humanitarianism" or "Humanitism") is an Esperanto word used by its creator, Ludwig Zamenhof, to describe his philosophy of human interaction and behaviour. Based largely on the teachings of Hillel the Elder, a 1st-century BCE rabbi, Zamenhof originally called this philosophy Hillelism. He sought to reform Judaism, because he hoped that without the strange dress code and purity requirements, it would no longer be the victim of antisemitic propaganda. The basis of Hillelism is the sentence known as the Golden Rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Zamenhof said about Homaranismo:

With Hillelism we don't mean a new denomination; we mean a new corporate-religious order inside the old Jewish religion, which has existed for a long time. Everybody who lives ethically could take part in this religion with a clear conscience, no matter what the religious views he had before looked like.

Based on this idea, he came to the conclusion that this philosophy could be a bridge between religions, not just a subset of Judaism. Zamenhof subsequently renamed his philosophy Homaranismo.

Zamenhof first described this philosophy around the year 1900 and published it anonymously in a brochure in 1906. He later published a revised version in 1913 under the name Homaranismo.

While many different motivations drew early Esperantists to that movement, for Zamenhof Esperanto was always a means by which to facilitate improved human relations, especially beyond boundaries of race, language and culture. Zamenhof's daughter Lidia embraced this philosophy and taught it alongside Esperanto and her adopted religion, the Bahá'í Faith.

The beliefs and practices of Homaranismo have many similarities to those of the civil religions of the French Revolution, especially Theophilanthropy.

The symbol of Homaranismo is a green star like that of Esperanto.

Excerpt from the declaration of Homaranismo

  1. I am a human being, and I believe that there are only human ideals and ideals linked to the country of origin; every ideal which brings hatred among peoples and entails the power of one ethnicity over another I believe it to be human egoism, which sooner or later must disappear and to which disappearance I must contribute according to my possibilities.
  2. I believe that all peoples are equally part of humankind, and I value every person only according to his personal values and actions, and not according to his/her origin. Every offense or persecutions of people because they belong to a different ethnicity, with a different language or religion, I regard it as a barbarity.
  3. I believe that every country does not belong to a particular group of people, but equally to every people who live in it, regardless of their language or religion; the mixing of the country’s interests with those of one or another group of people, language or religion I regard it as reminiscence of barbarian times, when there was only the right of fist and sword.
  4. I believe that in his/her own family life each person has the natural and indisputable right to speak whatever language or dialect he/she wants and to confess whatever religion he/she wants; nevertheless, when communicating with people from other origins he/she must, when it is possible, aim to use a neutral language and to live according to neutral religious principles. Every attempt of a person to impose his/her language or religion to other people when it is not absolutely necessary, I regard it as a barbarity.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Declaration of Homaranismo - Appendix 5, Origins of Esperanto

Note: This article was adapted from the German Wikipedia article

Esperanto Wikisource has original text related to this article: