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Eliezer Ben Yehuda revived the Hebrew language in Israel.
- May 5, 2019
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Communication system Education system History Political system
The process began on October 13th 1881, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations.
The process of the Hebrew language revival began on October 13th 1881, as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his friends agreed to exclusively speak Hebrew in their conversations.
As a result, the language, which had not been spoken as a mother tongue since the second century CE, once again became the national language of Israel.
In the following years, he learned French, German, and Russian and traveled to Dunaburg, Latvia for further education.
With the rise of Jewish nationalism in 19th century Europe, Ben-Yehuda was captivated by the innovative ideas of Zionism.
While reading the Hebrew language newspaper HaShahar, he became acquainted with Zionism and concluded that the reviving the Hebrew language in the Land of Israel would unite all Jews worldwide.
And so, in 1881, Ben-Yehuda made aliya and came to live in Jerusalem.
At that time, it was believed that one of the criteria needed to define a nation worthy of national rights was its use of a common language spoken by both the society and the individual.
In fact, Ben-Yehuda regarded Hebrew and Zionism as one and the same, writing that,
“The Hebrew language can live only if we revive the nation and return it to the fatherland.”
According to researchers,
it appears that in the fifty years preceding the start of the revival process, a version of spoken Hebrew already existed in the markets of Jerusalem.
The Sephardic Jews who spoke Ladino or Arabic and the Ashkenazi Jews who spoke Yiddish needed a common language for commercial purposes, and the most obvious choice was Hebrew.