Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the Father of Modern Hebrew
The official language of Israel is Hebrew, but many people don't know that until the end of the 19th century almost no one spoke Hebrew colloquially. Lashon Hakodesh, the holy tongue, was used only for prayer and study. Much of modern Hebrew usage must be credited to the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (originally Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman), about whom the historian Cecil Roth noted: “Before Ben-Yehuda... Jews could speak Hebrew; after him they did.” Born in Luzhki, Russia, Ben-Yehuda abandoned his traditional background for more secular studies when he was a young adult. He also became an ardent Zionist. Ben-Yehuda and his wife Devora arrived in Jerusalem in 1881. Even before he left Paris (where he had studied at the Sorbonne), Ben-Yehuda tried to use Hebrew to communicate with other Jews, and many were able to respond to him because of their knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. The Ben-Yehudas tried to raise their children speaking only Hebrew. As they grew, Ben-Yehuda was forced to create...