Page 10 - Eliezer Ben Yehuda

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‫שרחוב הנביאים‬

Ulpan-Or; T-Ulpan, Advanced Level

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda - ‫ֱא ִלי ֶע ֶזר ֵבן ְיהו ָדה‬

English translation

A young couple arrived in Jaffa's port in 1881 – Eliezer Ben Yehuda and
his wife Devorah. Eliezer Ben Yehuda thought that all Jews should speak
only Hebrew. He always used to say: "I realized that just as the Jews
could not become a living nation without returning to the land of their
ancestors, so they could not become a living nation without returning to
the language of their ancestors." Therefore, when Eliezer and Devorah
arrived in Israel, Eliezer turned to Devorah, who did not know a word in
Hebrew and told her that from now on he would talk to her only in
Hebrew.
Eliezer and Devorah lived in Jerusalem. At the beginning, Eliezer wrote
in the newspaper "Havatzelet". Then he founded new newspapers in order
to revive the Hebrew language.
In 1882 Eliezer and Devorah had their firstborn son Itamar Ben Zion.
Eliezer was very excited and said: "This will be the first child who after
2000 years will have Hebrew as his mother tongue"
Itamar spoke, read and wrote only Hebrew. Eliezer did not allow (agree to
let) anybody to enter his house if he had not spoken Hebrew. All the
people in Israel thought that Eliezer Ben Yehuda was a mad man, and told
him: "Hebrew isn't a language for life; your son would be an idiot".
When Itamar grew up, he became a journalist and he had his own Hebrew
newspaper in Jerusalem.
Life in Jerusalem was hard, Devorah died after a critical sickness. But
Eliezer Ben Yehuda did not get discouraged and he continued with his
dream of Hebrew language. Eliezer married Devorah's younger sister –
Chemda, and Chemda helped him with the children and his dream of
Hebrew.
Eliezer Ben Yehuda continued to invent new words in Hebrew and
continued to write his Hebrew dictionary.
Eliezer Ben Yehuda died in 1922. 30 years after his death, Hebrew
became the language of the "Sabras", the language of young Jews who
lived in the land of Israel.
Eliezer Ben Yehuda who was excommunicated all his life, succeeded in
his mission of turning the Hebrew into a living language.
Today in Israel everybody speaks Hebrew - Eliezer's dream came true.

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