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To Read and Hear in Hebrew |
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To Read and Hear in Francais |
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To Read and Hear in English |
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To Read and Hear in Hebrew |
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To Read and Hear in Francais |
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To Read and Hear in English |
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922)Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was one of the first Zionists and is credited with the revival of Hebrew as a modern tongue spoken by a renascent Jewish nation.
Elliezer was born in Luzki, Lithuania, in 1858 to Yehuda Leib and Feyga Perelman. Raised as an orthodox Jew, he studied in a Yeshivah until one of his Rabbis, a "secret maskil" (enlightened Jew), caused him to change course and become a "free thinker" and a revolutionary. However, at the age of seventeen he had an overwhelming "revelation" which was to decide his course in life, "it was as if the heavens had suddenly opened, and a clear incandescent light flashed before my eyes, and a mighty inner voice sounded in my ears: the renascence of Israel on its ancestral soil" This vision remained with him, as he wrote, "the more the nationalist concept grew in me, the more I realized what a common language is to a nation..." Thus he dedicated himself to this goal: 'Yisrael be'artzo uvilshono' the rebirth of the nation of Israel in its own land, speaking its own language.
Eliezer changed his surname to Ben-Yehuda when he began his political activity with his first essay, "A Burning Question," which was published by the Hebrew periodical, "The Dawn," in 1879. Making good on his essay's call to emigrate to the Land of the Fathers, Eliezer moved to Jerusalem in 1881, meeting and marrying his childhood sweetheart, Deborah Jonas, when he stopped off in Vienna to meet with Peretz Smolenskin, publisher of "The Dawn". Together, Eliezer and Deborah established the first H ebrew-speaking home in Eretz Yisrael, and their son, Ben-Zion (who became known by his pen-name, Itamar Ben-Avi) was the first child in modern times to be nurtured with Hebrew as his native language.
Eliezer made friends and allies in Jerusalem, and before long established two organizations: "Tekhiyat Yisrael" -- the Rebirth of Israel -- and"Safa B'rura"-- Clear Tongue -- to implement his goals. It was in respnse to his article in "The Dawn" that the first group of halutzim (pioneers), the BILU group, came to settle on the land.
Soon after his arrival in Jerusalem, Ben-Yehuda accepted a teaching position at the Alliance School which became the first school where some courses were taught in Hebrew, due to Eliezer's insistence that Hebrew be the official language of instruction for Jewish subjects.
Ben-Yehuda wrote for "Hakhavatzelet" (The Lily), a Hebrew literary periodical, and launched "Hatzvi" -- The Deer -- a weekly newspaper. "Hatzvi" was the first Hebrew paper to report what was happening throughout the land. For this paper Eliezer needed to coin new Hebrew words for objects and verbs that did not exist in the days of the last Hebrew commonwealth.
Ben-Yehuda founded and presided over "Va'ad Halashon', the forerunner of the Hebrew Language Academy, and worked 18 hours a day on his "Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew." In 1910 he published the first of six volumes that saw light before his death in 1922, and after his death his widow and son Ehud continued publishing his manuscript, a task which was completed in 1959 (17 volumes). The dictionary lists all the words used in Hebrew literature from the time of Abraham to modern times. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was fortunate enough to see his dream become reality: A modern nation speaking an ancient tongue -- Yisrael be'artzo uvilshono.
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 THE TORAH |
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