A visit at the Academy of Hebrew Language

For the last few weeks I attend a series of lectures about Hebrew language intended for text editors. For a rather modest participation fee we are allowed to enter the holy temple of Hebrew language, whose priests and priestesses introduce us into its very secrets.

The Academy of Hebrew Language (Hebrew Academy) resides on the university campus of Givat-Ram in Jerusalem - the campus which was built after 1967. The building was built in an architectural style typical of that time, with a flat roof; it stands on a hill, surrounded by a grove of tall maritime pines.

The original founder of the Academy is no else than the famous Eliezer Ben Yehuda: this is the man who, at the end of the 19th century, when Zionism just was in its beginnings, had this funny idea that all the Jews of the Jewish settlements in Palestine should communicate in Hebrew.

As opposed to Latin, Old Greek or any other ancient language, Hebrew never had been a dead language: while Biblical Hebrew indeed was an ancient language, there were several other forms of Hebrew: the various Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud, such as Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Early Rabbinic Hebrew), Amoraic Hebrew (Late Rabbinic Hebrew); the Hebrew of medieval secular poetry (in Muslim Spain and Arabic speaking countries) based on Biblical Hebrew while using Arabic metres. On top of this existed varieties of Hebrew and pronunciation which were characteristic of various Jewish populations: Sephardi, Yemenite, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi. All these forms of Hebrew were in use - but mainly for prayer and chanting (piyyut), not for every day life. There were a few exceptions to that: when Diaspora Jews from different countries would meet, they used a sort of very basic Hebrew Koine - a vehicular language - but only for very limited use.

It is said that when young Eliezer Perelman and his newly wed wife Dvora Jonas, who shared his ideals, reached the land of Palestine in Jaffa in 1881, they spoke in Hebrew with several Jewish laborers in the harbor; this was the only way to communicate among Jews of different origins.


In the eyes of the orthodox Jews - and not only theirs - the mere idea of using the sacred Hebrew language all day long in secular circumstances was no less than profanation. Yet Eliezer and Dvora Ben-Yehuda did not give up: they settled down in the new town of Jerusalem, nearby the famous Prophets street. A year later their first born son Ben-Tzion was born. Dvora had promised her husband that their son would be raised exclusively in Hebrew; in the meantime, Ben-Yehuda, who worked all his life as an autodidact lexicographer, made sure to "invent" the "missing" words for every day life, to ensure that people conversing in modern Hebrew would have all the needed words to be able to communicate properly while talking about issues such as cooking or managing a household.

The boy Ben-Tzion, like his father, eventually changed his name: Israelis know him as Itamar Ben-Avi (Avi - אב"י being the initials of Eliezer Ben Yehuda). He is celebrated in a famous folk song (see: song-eliezerbenyehuda) as the first Hebrew speaking child in Israel. As an adult, he also became famous, among other things, for his fiery love letters to a young Sephardi Jerusalemite by the name of Lea, whose mother would not let her marry him because he was a penniless Ashkenazi; for three years Ben-Avi kept publishing those letters in his newspaper, until he eventually threatened to kill himself. Eventually they married. This story is also celebrated in a famous Israeli folk song (The love of Itamar Ben-Avi).

Life for the Ben-Yehuda family wasn't easy: they were poor, disregarded and even banned by the local Jewish community who was outraged by Ben-Yehuda's crazy ideas about inciting all Jews to talk all day long in Hebrew. Yet among the secular Jews and the Zionists there were people who were able to grasp that the idea actually was brilliant: it allowed schoolteachers to communicate with Jewish children from different countries. More and more members of the "Yishuv" (the secular Jewish community in Palestine). Ben-Yehuda published a newspaper in Modern Hebrew - and was persecuted by his opponents, who stigmatized him as a traitor and filed a complaint against him with the Turkish local authorities. Ben-Yehuda and his family had to flee and spent a few years in America to avoid imprisonment. Eventually they came back and continued their life as previously.

Fact is that by 1922, when the British seized the power over Palestine, they immediately recognized that Hebrew was the official language of the Jewish local citizens - the ultimate success for Ben-Yehuda and his followers.

Yet life was not easy for this great pioneer: after having given birth to 5 children, his wife Dvora died of tuberculosis; very soon after this sad event, 3 among his 5 young children died within 10 days. Eliezer now had only one sone, Ben-Tzion (later Itamar Ben-Avi)  and a daughter, Dola Ben-Yehuda. Dola died in 2005 at the age of 103! One year after his wife's death, his sister in law Beyle came to Palestine to assist him in raising the young children; soon after they married - as it seems, this had been the late wife's wish. Beyle changed her name to Chemda and bore Eliezer 6 children; 4 among them reached adulthood. One of them was Ehud Ben-Eliezer, who continued working on his father's famous dictionary.

The furniture and the library of the the Ben-Yehuda family has been preserved and is kept in a distinct room within the Academy of Hebrew Languages. It is possible to make an appointment for a guided tour. For those who cherish the Israeli Hebrew and its prophet, this equals to entering a shrine and it is well worth a visit.