How Hebrew became a Modern Spoken Language 14/8/20
This is a book written about a Jew by a non Jew
To the writer in 1948 the name Ben Yehuda was merely a street name in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Jews came from 60 different countries with different religious attitudes, languages and cultures but had only a common language in Hebrew. In NY he met Mrs Max Wittmann (Devora) daughter of Ben Yehuda and Hemda her mother who died in summer 1951.
"God would destroy the infidel for tampering with his language". In his lifetime Ben Yehuda had more enemies than friends but they have been silenced by his success. Hebrew was a language of Tulmudic argument and prayer.
He was put in prison and survived tuberculosis, had 11 children and wrote a volume dictionary that ended in 16 volumes. He had worked in Aretz Israel for 41 years
1858 Born in Luzhky , Lithuania as Eliezer Peralman and was greatly influenced by his father Labelah. He lived with his uncle till his bar mitzvah. He was given Robinson Crusoe by Rabbi Joseph Blucker in Hebrew to read. He was given the family name Elyanof as this was a childless couple and so as an only son was not conscripted into the army,
Moved to a Polotzk Yeshiva, in Glubokaya he met the Jonas family and Devora taught him French and German then Gymnasium in Dunaburg where he studied with a small scholarship.
1878 The Tzar liberated the Bulgars from the Turks but he felt the Jews needed to be liberated, and not to wait for the messiah like orthodox rabbis said. He studied at the Sorbonne , Paris and met persons like Victor Hugo, Sara Bernhardt and Adolphe Cremieux. He met Charles Netter, founder of the Mikveh Israel in Palestine. He spent time in Algiers to cure his tuberculosis where he met local Jews.
The Hebrew monthly in Vienna published his article "A Worthy Question"- every nation has to defend its own nationality and only settlements in Israel can do that.
Hebrew was a spoken language till 200 BC then Greek became a common language of Jews. In Europe medieval Germanic written in Hebrew letters. but to unify the people a common language of Hebrew was needed and had to be modernized. In Paris he supported himself by translating French into Russian.
1881 Devora joined him in Vienna where he met Peretz Smolenskin they married in Constantinople and went to Palestine. They agreed they would only speak Hebrew to their children. To get to Jerusalem took a cart and slept at Bab el Wad and then up the hill the next day 24 km to Jerusalem. Here he worked for a Hebrew paper under Israel Frumkin for the paper Hahabtzeleth. He was given his own paper to run called Mebasseret Zion
The Jewsih population lived in poverty and filth and they had to be orthodox to live with them. Jews lived off charity sent by Jews abroad and pious people came to die in Jerusalem. The people who went abroad to raise money kept about a third for themselves. Few Jews had taken out Turkish citizenship and only the Sparadim considered nothing wrong with working. The leaders were opposed to agriculture as tilling the soil was considered vulgar. Ashkenasim and Spparadim had no common language.
He got help from Nissim Behar who was in charge of Alliance Israelite Universelle. Ben Yehuda was given a post at this French school but he was unofficially paid under the table. Many Jews objected to Hebrew being taught this way.
Jehiel Michael Pines represented British Jewry with the Montefiore Memorial Foundation.
Ben Yehuda's writing in the Hebrew paper Hashahar influenced many in Eastern Europe and the Biluim arrived acronym for "Sons of Jacob Come let us go"
When Elizer and Devoras first son Ben Zion was born they only spoke Hebrew to him the next Ittamar the later AviHayal.
1878 Petah Tikva inaugurated. Set up by Jews from Jerusalem and Jaffa and Hebrew not Yiddish would be the language.
1882 Rishon Lezion started but people stayed in Jaffa till a deep well had been constructed.
With connections and bribery the Turks gave permission for the Hetziba (deer) to be published as a weekly paper. One article said that money from abroad should be used to buy land to provide work, this upset people receiving the "Haluka"
Ben Yehuda now had to write Hebrew Text books and David Yellin helped write plays for children.They also started translating books into Hebrew including the "Arabian knights" He taught Hebrew in Hebrew. Also a Hebrew geography of Palestine published.
William Hertzberg was the rep in Palestine to administer funds from Germany and gave him funds for a Hebrew dictionary. Because of orthodox objections, the ben Yehuda were evicted from their home by the landlord but his supporters forced the landlord to take him back. He wrote against the Smita laws being taken literally and called for a proper accounting of the Halukah monies. There was an official Herem placed against him.
1887 he went to Moscow.he was also well received in Paris.Meanwhile Devora moved to a Sparadi area in Jerusalem where she was more welcome.
It was never known in history for a person to create a language. An attempt to create a Jewish state would arouse dormant antisemitism. Debora taught Hebrew at the Evelina Rothchild girls school, but the school medium was English.
1891 Debora died of tuberculosis at the age of 37
The Turks had become suspicious of Jewish nationalism and stopped immigration but people smuggled in easily. When the Askenazim would not bury her the Sparadim agreed to so then the Askanazim relented. AviHayal and 2 younger sisters died. They wanted to promote Rabbi Jacob Meir to represent the community and he had to learn French sto be able to do that.
You needed literature in Hebrew and he translated Victor Hugo's Notre Dame and Mollers Le Tartuffe.
Every publication of the paper had an explanation of the new word to be used. At the settlements Israel Belkind set up schools where only Hebrew was used. A wealthy man Helpren from Smolensk set up Nes Tziona and remained there working as a labourer. Warsaw Jews set p Rehovot.
To stop Arab stealing their flocks Israel Feinberg set up guards. Baron Rothschild set up wine making. Meir Dizengoff established a bottle making factory at Tantura but Yellow Fever and Malaria swept through it. At Rosh Pina silk making was set up. A perfume factory was set up which caused geranium and roses to be planted.
Debora's sister studied natural sciences in Moscow and took the Hebrew name Hemda and married him. She had to learn Hebrew otherwise Russian not Yiddish was spoken to the children Ottomen subjects were supposed to wear the fez as respect to the Sultan.
1892 Train from Jaffa to Jerusalem completed. Ben Yehuda supported the effort of Rothschild agents who did not get on with the settlers. A Russian group called Bnei Moshe supported Hebrew schools in Palestine, it's leader was Ginsburg who changed his name to Ahad Ha'am. Ben Yehuda's supporters were young while his opponents were the older generation.
Sultan Abdul Hamid II censorship was severe. When the Jewish community brought a herem against Eliezer he was put on trial by the Turks till Rothschild used his influence and the case was dropped.
Professor Soloman Schecter visited him and later became president of the Jewish theological Seminary of the US. Reporters volunteered to send to Jerusalem articles about their settlement. Saul Tchsernikowski became the Hebrew ``poet of paganism" "poet laureate of the Jews"
1897 by then a real Jewish life began to develop, Jaffa had become almost half Jewish. The Lamel school supported by German Jews instruction was in German but Hebrew as a foreign language was being taught in most Jewish schools. Hemda basically ran the Hetziba paper giving Eliazer time for his dictionary.
Hadera was at this stage a "Village of Death as Yellow Fever and malaria had killed every one of the original settlers. Zichron Ya'kov was settled principally by Romoanians including Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sara - NILI spies. Often young men returning from an education in France considered themselves too good for the labour needed.
Metulla was set up buying the land from Druse.
Israel Zangwill the writer from London and Herbert Betwitch met Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.
The early Zionist congresses never mentioned the issue of a national language. The Turkish censor would not allow the issue of Zionism to be in the press.
He got a grant from the Jewish Colonization Association of England. Narcisse Leven founder of Alliance Israelite gave him a grant for the dictionary. However the French philanthropists favoured Argentinian settlement because the Rabbi's in Jerusalem insisted on the Orthodox running everything. Political support seemed to come easier from Non Jews than Jews.
Lord Lionel Rothschild made it possible for Ben Yehuda to do research on philology at the British Museum.
1900 the British fought the Boers who wanted independence.
1906 Professor Boris Schatz of Vilna set up the Batzalel art school in Jerusalem
1907 Russia Japan War caused a split in views who to support and this followed by a wave of Jewish immigration.
Z.D, Levontin of The Anglo-Palestine bank gave him a loan to print the dictionary and also Otto Warburg gave him help.
In Berlin "Langenscheidtsche Verlagsbuchhandlung" a company specializing in dictionaries agreed to publish. Hemda got financial backing for them from Jewish Organizations. First volume with letters alef and bet came out dedicated to Baron Rothschild. Second volume dedicated to Otto Warburg.
After Hertzel's death the obvious person to take his place was Max Nordau but he withdrew himself as he had a Christian wife, so David Wolfson was chosen.He was later succeeded by Professor Otto Warburg.
1908 Young Turks deposed the Sultan in Constantinople. They allowed Jews to construct houses and opened immigration.
1909 Tel Aviv founded and Authur Ruppin set up an office by German Jewry to buy land. Shmaryahu Levin translated Dickens and Mark Twain into Hebrew.
Ephraim Hareuveni researched biblical plant names and Avrahm Zvi researched ancient music terms.
Russia built a teachers college in Nazareth and even Arab peasants began to speak Russian.
Wealthy Germans built the Technikum in Haifa to be in German but the students insisted on Hebrew. This was the period of "The War of Languages '' and the US ambassador to Turkey came and negotiated peace.
1914 volume 5 was dedicated to London Jewry. During WW1 no haluka money arrived but Maurice Wertheim son in law of Henry Morganthau brought $50 0000 This caused an argument between the leaders so he took the suitcase of money, went out of the room and said when you have an agreement call me.
Louis Brandeis insisted that Ben Yehuda and family come to the US where they spent the war years there and returned in 1919 to Palestine
1917 US joined the war and Edmund Allemby drove out the Turks after 400 years in Palestine. Ben Yehuda had argued that Britain was the best friend for the Jews.
1920 Herbert Samuel as High Commissioner for Palestine declared that English, Arabic and Hebrew were the official languages in 1922.
1920 With the money he was given in the US, in Talpiot he laid a cornerstone for a house named Matam Am.
1922 aged 64 he died.
1951 Volume 13 of the dictionary averaging 600 pages each volume had been printed.
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