Summary:

JEB (Junularo Esperantista Brita ≅ British Esperanto Youth) is the wing of the Esperanto Association of Britain for people aged under 30. (To learn about Esperanto visit the About Esperanto page.) Membership of JEB is free of cost.

The Origins:

The then British Esperanto Association was founded in 1904, and for the following half century was the focus point for Esperanto-speakers—young and old alike—in Britain since its inception.

The third World Esperanto Congress was held in Cambridge, organised by the famous “trio por la tria”, in reference to Harold Bolingbroke Mudie, doctor George Cunningham, and Colonel John Pollen. It is in this same Cambridge that JEB was born, some 50 years later.

A group of young people who were alumni of Cambridge University attended an Esperanto club run by one of their peers, a man named Humphrey Tonkin. Around the end of 1958/start of 1959, they formalised their club as JEB, producing a bi-monthly magazine “Kial Ne?” (”Why Not?“)

From little acorns grow huge oaks. This original incarnation of JEB produced future members of the Esperanto Akademio, people who were hugely successful in their professional lives. (Humphrey Tonkin went on to be the president of the both the World Esperanto Association and, earlier, its youth wing, and is University Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus at the University of Hartford. Professor John Wells was also president of the World Esperanto Association, and is the retired Departmental Chair of Phonetics at University College London.)

Over the intervening five decades, JEB has blown hot and cold, periods of frenetic activity coming to a halt as members pass the upper age limit and leave, and are not replaced, until the cycle repeats, as new arrivals reinvigorate the sleeping association.

JEB is currently in an upswing. Following a period where it appeared to have vanished, 2006 saw the arrival of another such dynamic person. A website was constructed, and the association showed signs of emerging from its prolonged hibernation. Since then, more people have joined, the forums have been steadily facilitating the mixing of new members with those more experienced, and several of us have met up for lunches and day trips.

Goals:

I write this as the president of JEB, and I personally know (some more than others) all of the people that are active in the organisation. One thing we’re not is “Espervangelists”. We’re hobbyists and friends, and a nice bunch of people.

Our goal isn’t to maximise the number of members in JEB. Rather, we would like to make things easier for people who themselves show an interest in Esperanto to learn it, have their questions answered, and hang out with other people who share that particular interest. We hope to be a visible presence, such that anyone who is so minded to search for Esperanto in Britain will see that there is indeed a group of young people who learn and speak the language.

So, if you’d like to know more, by all means visit the forums, have a look around, and say “saluton”. Easy as that

Ĝis!