Revival of the Hebrew language

The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and Palestine toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from purely the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and written language used for daily life in Israel. The process began as Jews from diverse regions started arriving and establishing themselves alongside the pre-existing Jewish community in the region of Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century. Arabic-speaking Jews in Palestine and the linguistically diverse newly arrived Jews switched to Hebrew as a lingua franca,^[1]^[2] the historical linguistic common denominator of all the Jewish groups. At the same time, a parallel development in Europe changed Hebrew from primarily a sacred liturgical language into a literary language,^[3] which played a key role in the development of nationalist educational programs.^[4] Modern Hebrew was one of three official languages of Mandatory Palestine, and after the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, one of two official languages of Israel, along with Modern Arabic. In July 2018, a new law made Hebrew the sole official language of the state of Israel, giving Arabic a "special status".^[5]

More than purely a linguistic process, the revival of Hebrew was utilized by Jewish modernization and political movements, led many people to change their names^[6] and became a tenet of the ideology associated with settlement and renaming of the land, Zionism^[7] and Israeli policy.

The process of Hebrew's return to regular usage is unique; there are no other examples of a natural language without any native speakers subsequently acquiring several million native speakers, and no other examples of a sacred language becoming a national language with millions of native speakers.

The language's revival eventually brought linguistic additions with it. While the initial leaders of the process insisted they were only continuing "from the place where Hebrew's vitality was ended", what was created represented a broader basis of language acceptance; it includes characteristics derived from all periods of Hebrew language, as well as from the non-Hebrew languages used by the long-established European, North African, and Middle Eastern Jewish communities, with Yiddish being predominant.

^ Parfitt, Tudor (1972) 'The Use of Hebrew in Palestine 1800–1822.' Journal of Semitic Studies, 17 (2). pp. 237–252.
^ Tudor Parfitt; ”The Contribution of the Old Yishuv to the Revival of Hebrew“, Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. XXIX, Iss. 2, 1 October 1984, pp. 255–265, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/XXIX.2.255
^ Parfitt, Tudor (1983) ”Ahad Ha-Am's Role in the Revival and Development of Hebrew.” In: Kornberg, J., (ed.), At the crossroads: essays on Ahad Ha-am. New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 12–27.
^ Parfitt, Tudor (1995) ”Peretz Smolenskin, the Revival of Hebrew and Jewish Education.” In: Abramson, G. and Parfitt, T., (eds.), Jewish education and learning : published in honour of Dr. David Patterson on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 1–11.
^ Halbfinger, David M.; Kershner, Isabel (19 July 2018). "Israeli Law Declares the Country the 'Nation-State of the Jewish People'". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
^ "The Hebraization of Surnames". Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
^ Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 442. " Yet in all [of young David Ben-Gurion's] activity, three salient principles remained constant. First, Jews must make it their priority to return to the land; ‘the settlement of the land is the only true Zionism, all else being self-deception, empty verbiage and merely a pastime’. [Quoted in Encyclopaedia Judaica, iv 506.] Second, the structure of the new community must be designed to assist this process within a socialist framework. Third, the cultural binding of the Zionist society must be the Hebrew language.

[1] Parfitt, Tudor (1972) 'The Use of Hebrew in Palestine 1800–1822.' Journal of Semitic Studies, 17 (2). pp. 237–252.

[2] Tudor Parfitt; ”The Contribution of the Old Yishuv to the Revival of Hebrew“, Journal of Semitic Studies, Vol. XXIX, Iss. 2, 1 October 1984, pp. 255–265, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/XXIX.2.255

[3] Parfitt, Tudor (1983) ”Ahad Ha-Am's Role in the Revival and Development of Hebrew.” In: Kornberg, J., (ed.), At the crossroads: essays on Ahad Ha-am. New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 12–27.

[4] Parfitt, Tudor (1995) ”Peretz Smolenskin, the Revival of Hebrew and Jewish Education.” In: Abramson, G. and Parfitt, T., (eds.), Jewish education and learning : published in honour of Dr. David Patterson on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 1–11.

[NYT_2018-5] Halbfinger, David M.; Kershner, Isabel (19 July 2018). "Israeli Law Declares the Country the 'Nation-State of the Jewish People'". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 July 2018.

[JAI-6] "The Hebraization of Surnames". Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2009.

[7] Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 442. " Yet in all [of young David Ben-Gurion's] activity, three salient principles remained constant. First, Jews must make it their priority to return to the land; ‘the settlement of the land is the only true Zionism, all else being self-deception, empty verbiage and merely a pastime’. [Quoted in Encyclopaedia Judaica, iv 506.] Second, the structure of the new community must be designed to assist this process within a socialist framework. Third, the cultural binding of the Zionist society must be the Hebrew language.

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