In and about the Promised Land

A Nation Needs to Speak

by Steve Israel

A. Questions in a Contemporary Context

1. Why do older members of the community often oppose what younger members wish to change?
2. What relevance does the Hebrew language have for our community today?
3. Should Hebrew be part of our lives? If so, how?

B. Background Text

Among the thousands of immmigrants who poured into the country in those years, one of he strangest was a young, slightly-built and sick man possessed by an idea with a strength that can only be called fanatical. His passion was language - and specifically the Hebrew language. His name was Eliezer and he adopted a new surname of Ben-Yehuda. The mission he took upon himself was nothing less than the revival of Hebrew as a modern language.

Hebrew was not a dead language; it was extraordinarily vital for a nation that had lived so many centuries in so many different countries, each with their own languages. On the other hand, Hebrew was not the preferred natural language of speech for almost any Jew anywhere - although many scholars did read and write fluently in Hebrew.

In Eretz Yisrael, however, each sub-group of Jews communicated in their own lingua franca [Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino] -- but Hebrew had become the language of communication between representatives of all these communities, since it was - to some extent - the common language.

Ben Yehuda had been a young Jewish socialist in Russia, involved in Russian affairs, before being "converted" to a passionate belief in the need to revive the Jewish nation in its own land. His awakening did not originate in the pogroms of 1881, but rather -- as for Kalischer -- in the influence of the national movements developing throughout Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was a change that came with tremendous force: Ben Yehuda spoke out strongly for the national revival - and the aspect concerning him more than any other was the necessity to revive the national language as a spoken language.

He took to task the many Jewish Haskalah intellectuals who had lamented that fewer and fewer Jews in Europe had an interest in Hebrew.

It is senseless to cry out: "let us cherish the Hebrew tongue, lest we perish." The Hebrew language can only live if we revive th nation and return it to its fatherland ...[or] all efforts to make the young appreciate th language will be of no avail. Let us therefore make the language really live again! Let us teach our young to speak it and they will never betray it!

With these ideas in mind, Ben Yehuda left Russian and, after a brief stopover in France, arrived in Jerusalem with his wife. The year was 1881. Here, he embarked on his life's enterprise of furthering the Hebrew language as the spoken language of the Jewish people, especially of those living in Eretz Yisrael.

Year by year, for some four decades, he collected every word and phrase, and the collection grew, becoming the basis of today's Hebrew language. Ben Yehuda was a passionate, crazy fanatic or he would not have embarked upon - and succeeded in - such an immense undertaking.

C. Appeal for Support

1. Double Approach

You are Ben Yehuda, and have worked for several years collecting terms for your Hebrew dictionary. You are ready to publish the first volume, but need several hundred guaranteed purchases in advance to order the press to print it. You have decided to write an appeal to potential buyers to convince them to commit themselves to one copy each, minimum.

Divide into 2 groups.
The first group writes an appeal to support the project for Jewish communities outside Eretz Yisrael; the second to communities in Eretz Yisrael. You will need time to make a small poster as well as write the letter.

2. Outreach

Review the results of your handiwork critically and decide whether they are likely to attract sufficient customers - and funds!

If you think you can go better, name four different, specific target groups in the Jewish world and divide into four. Each group now notes breifly the most effective arguments it would use for their target group.

Review together.

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