Logo of World Esperantist Vegetarian Association shows its Esperanto-language motto Vivu kaj lasu vivi ("Live and let live.")
The World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (Esperanto: Tutmonda Esperantista Vegetarana Asocio, TEVA) is a voluntary association of Esperanto-speaking vegetarians. Founded in 1908, the group's working language is Esperanto, and it is the oldest international organization of vegetarians that is currently active. TEVA published a journal, Vegetarano ("Vegetarian") from 1914 to 1932, revived in 2009 as Esperantista Vegetarano, and has also operated a spirited Internet mailing list through Yahoo! Groups since 2005.
Famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, honorary president of the World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (TEVA) at its founding in 1908, is honoured on a Soviet Union stamp issued in 1978 to commemorate the sesquicentennial of his birth.
Surveys among members of the British Esperanto Association (1968)[1] and the German Esperanto Association (1992)[2] have found that there are proportionally far more vegetarians among Esperanto speakers than among non-Esperantists. Peter Forster, author of The Esperanto Movement, suggests that there is a general relationship between vegetarianism and pacifism—and, therefore, also between vegetarianism and Esperanto.
History of TEVA
Already by 1893 two favourable articles about vegetarianism, had appeared in La Esperantisto ("The Esperantist")—both later incorporated into Fundamenta krestomatio (1903), L. L. Zamenhof's basic Esperanto reader: La hejmo de la metiisto ("The home of the craftsman") and Kio estas vegetarismo? "What is vegetarianism?"). A third example may also be mentioned: an article about the longevity of centenarians, which pointed out that a common factor seemed to be a largely plant-based diet. The publication of such stories and articles suggests that Zamenhof himself had a positive attitude towards vegetarianism.
On 16 August 1908, at the Fourth World Congress of Esperanto in Dresden, Germany, the International Union of Esperantist Vegetarians (Internacia Unuiĝo de Esperantistaj Vegetaranoj, IUEV) was founded. Several years later the group changed its name to Vegetarian Esperantist League (Vegetara Ligo Esperantista, VLE). Finally, just after World War II, it adopted its present name, World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (Tutmonda Esperantista Vegetarana Asocio, TEVA).
Early in the history of the Esperanto movement, the language's creator, L. L. Zamenhof, published several articles favourable to vegetarianism. The photograph was taken at the 1908 World Congress of Esperanto in Dresden.
The association was founded at the instigation of René de Ladevèze. According to the Enciklopedio de Esperanto, Leo Tolstoy (himself a committed vegetarian) agreed to serve as its honorary president. According to Esperantista Vegetarano (1995, p.23), Ludwik Zamenhof was also among the 19 founding members but requested that this not be mentioned in their vegetarian literature. This information has not been corroborated elsewhere.
Two days after the IUEV founding convention, the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) was established, also in Dresden, this latter group intended primarily as an association of those vegetarians who were not also Esperantist.
J. Arthur Gill, an Esperanto speaker who was secretary of a Quaker group known as the Friends Vegetarian Society, founded in 1902, had suggested that the vegetarian non-Esperantists could hold their own founding convention in connection with the earlier event and that Esperanto vegetarians could attend both events and help international understanding at the IVU's convention through the neutral medium of Esperanto. In the end, however, only a few Esperantists actually attended the IVU founding convention on 18 August 1908.
By the time of its 1913 IVU convention at The Hague, Esperanto was one of the IVU's five official languages, along with English, French, German and Dutch.
In 1914 the first issue of the magazine Vegetarano appeared, edited by Esperantist August Oskar Bünemann (1885–1958). From 1927 until 1932, the magazine was both a magazine for Esperantist vegetarians and an official organ of the International Vegetarian Union. In addition to Esperanto-language articles, it contained information about international vegetarianism written in English, French and German. For financial reasons, IVU stopped publishing the magazine in 1932.
TEVA directors during the 38th convention of the International Vegetarian Union in Dresden, August 2008. Left to right: Francesco Maurelli, Christopher Fettes and Heidi Goes.
In 1954, Nathan Ben Zion Havkin, founder of the Palestine-Israel Vegetarian Foundation, reorganized TEVA, which was further reawakened in 1971 by Arnošt Váňa, of Slovakia (1909–1998). He introduced a principle whereby instead of paying a fixed membership fee, members could individually decide on the amount of their annual donation. TEVA maintained this system until 2008.
In 1992 Váňa was succeeded as president by Christopher Fettes, a Briton who had become an Irish citizen. For a few years a schism resulted, as TEVA had to reconcile inconsistent records of Italian and Slovakian membership numbers and donation receipts, and had also to resolve uncertainty as to who had been chosen as board members to represent those countries. The problems were blamed on the 85-year-old Váňa, whose health had begun to deteriorate in the last years of his life before he died in 1998. The schism was eventually healed when the membership ended Váňa's experiment, replacing his leadership through a loose collective of friends with a restored society structure properly governed by its constitution and by-laws through a democratically elected board.
Among the above-mentioned activists or supporters, four have served as honorary presidents of TEVA: Leo Tolstoy, René de Ladevèze, Nathan Ben Zion Havkin and Arnošt Váňa.
TEVA's aims and activities
According to its constitution and by-laws, the association aims to "promote Esperanto among vegetarians and vegetarianism among Esperantists... in active and friendly and active collaboration, with the goal of respect for nature and all living beings." Its motto is Vivu kaj lasu vivi ("Live and let live").
Since 2009 TEVA has published the twice-yearly magazine Esperantista Vegetarano (approx. 40 pages per issue), successor to both the previously published Vegetarano and the Letero de la Esperantista Vegetarano supplement.
Its meetings are not arranged independently, but are usually held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the World Congress of Esperanto. In addition, TEVA affiliates with other Esperantist and vegetarian groups. For example, TEVA members worked at the 36th International Vegetarian Union convention in 2004 in Florianópolis, Brazil, and at its 38th convention in Dresden, where the IVU and TEVA jointly celebrated their 100-year jubilee.
Christopher Fettes, photographed at his estate in Ireland in 2011Flemish Esperantist Heidi Goes, general secretary-treasurer of the World Esperantist Vegetarian Association (TEVA), during the 94th World Congress of Esperanto in Białystok, Poland
Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication, or "the international language". Zamenhof first described the language in Dr. Esperanto's International Language, which he published under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto. Early adopters of the language liked the name Esperanto and soon used it to describe his language. The word esperanto translates into English as "one who hopes".
Esperantujo or Esperantio is the community of speakers of the Esperanto language and their culture, as well as the places and institutions where the language is used. The term is used "as if it were a country."
The Universal Esperanto Association, also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5,501 individual members in 121 countries and 9,215 through national associations in 214 countries. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is Prof. Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main publication to inform UEA members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.
The Esperanto Association of Britain (EAB) is a registered educational charity whose objective is to advance education in and about the international language Esperanto and to preserve and promote the culture and heritage of Esperanto for the educational benefit of the general public. The organisation was established in 1904.
The International Youth Congress is the largest annual meeting of young Esperantists in the world. The participants come from all over the world for one week, and they usually number around 300, although there has been a congress with more than 1000 attendees before. The congress takes place in a different country every year and is organized by the World Esperanto Youth Organization, the youth wing of the Universal Esperanto Association. Both the IJK and the World Esperanto Congress take place each summer, usually in consecutive weeks but rarely in the same country.
Finvenkismo is an ideological current within the Esperanto movement. The name is derived from the concept of a fina venko, denoting the moment when Esperanto will be used as the predominant second language throughout the world. A finvenkist is thus someone who hopes for or works towards this "final victory" of Esperanto. According to some finvenkists, this "final victory" of Esperanto may help eradicate war, chauvinism, and cultural oppression. The exact nature of this adoption, and what would constitute a "final victory" is often left unspecified.
The International Union of Catholic Esperantists is an organization of Catholic Esperanto speakers. It was founded in 1910 in Paris and is now headquartered in Rome.
The Canadian Esperanto Association is a registered educational charity whose objective is to advance the education of Esperanto among the Canadian public.
Michel Duc Goninaz was a French Esperantist known worldwide for his 2002 revision of La Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto.
Amerika Esperantisto was a North American Esperanto-language monthly publication founded in January 1907 as Amerika Esperantista Revuo. It was originally published by the American Esperanto Association, a national association formed by Boston Esperantists in March 1905.
Ino Kolbe, born Ino Voigt, was a German Esperantist and author.
Medicina Internacia Revuo is the official organ of Universala Medicina Esperanto Asocio, an organization that gathers physicians, pharmacists, and other medical professionals who have a working knowledge of Esperanto. The twice-yearly journal publishes articles that have undergone peer review and that are written in various languages, including English and Polish; abstracts are provided in English and Esperanto. The journal publishes broadly within the medical sciences, has an internationally renowned board of editors, and is included in the Index Copernicus database. The journal is available gold open access, but no author fees are charged.
Marie Hankel (1844–1929) was a German writer of Esperanto literature. She is known for founding the Esperantista Literatura Asocio She also advocated for women's suffrage. She was married to the German mathematician Hermann Hankel.
The Esperanto workers movement has the goal of taking practical advantage of the international language Esperanto for advancing the goals of the labour movement, especially the fight against unrestrained capitalism. It is not only a political movement in the strict sense but also a cultural and educational one. Currently the principal Esperanto associations active in the Esperanto workers movement at the global level are the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda and the Internacia Komunista Esperantista Kolektivo, and in a wider sense, the Monda Asembleo Socia.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Esperanto:
Anarchism and Esperanto are strongly linked because of their common ideals of social justice and equality. During the early Esperanto movement, anarchists enthusiastically publicized the language, and the two movements have much common history.
Ernest Karlovich Drezen was a Soviet Esperantist and engineer. He was the leader of the Soviet Esperantist Union (SEU). Drezen was arrested and killed during the Great Purge in the 1930s.
Esperanto has been used in the Czech Republic since the 19th century. It was suppressed by the Nazi and Communist governments of the 20th century before being revived in 1969. The Czech Republic is home to the Esperanto Museum in Svitavy.
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