REVIVAL OF HEBREW

Evening Star, Issue 22688, 30 June 1937, Page 13

REVIVAL OF HEBREW

NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF PALESTINE i STRONG BINDING FORCE There was once, about the year 1860, a little Jewish schoolboy who lived with his family in tho old ghetto of the little town of Luschky, in the Empire of the Tsars. He spoke Russian and jabbered Yiddish, that German patois which is tho usual dialect of the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. His name was Bliezer Elianoff-Perlmann. Who can tell how a vocation germinates and grows in the soul of a child? It was perhaps some far-off echo of the Napoleonic doctrine of nationalities which came one day to the ears of this little boy and worked in his brain. A Jewish child, he was astonished that his co-religionists_ did not speak, as did the Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian children, a language of their own, and the idea came into his mind to restore one day to his race a language which was not the language of others, but their own language, a country which should be their own country, not one belonging to others where the Jews were_ only permitted to live under humiliating and precarious conditions.

To finish his studies, h© went to Paris. It was in 1877, _at the moment when republican principles triumphed in France. In Paris his uncertain aspiration* began to ripen and take form; ho dreamed, of a Jewish State where the ministers would speak in Hebrew, realising the ideal of the prophets. He wrote an article in Hebrew and sent it to a. journal, the editor of which kept it for a year on his table and finally sent it back to him. At the Soybonne he met Israelitish students with whom he had lively arguments; they thought that their co-religionists ought to let themselves He assimilated in the country of their residence, forgetting their nationality and keeping only their religion.. He made friends with a young Pole of aristocratic birth who, like himself, aspired to th© resurrection of His fatherland and comforted him with his enthusiasm and generosity. Following this young man’s advice, he revised his article and sent it to the great Hebrew writer, Smolensky, editor of the ‘ Shahar ’ (‘The Dawn’). This time the article was published but with a note irt which the editor declared that it was nothing but a dangerous Utopian dream; it was not possible to found a Jewish State nor to revive the Hebrew language as a spoken tongiie. Smolensky advised his contributor to devote himself to more practical studies and give up the pursuit of idle fancies.

Meanwhile the article, which appeared in 1879, was noticed and discussed. It was signed Ben-Jehouda (the son of Judah), and this pseudonym soon replaced the Russian name of the young Eliezer. The pogroms of 1882, in Russia, brought a new actuality to his ideas. A movement for the return of the Jews to Palestine began to develop, received with enthusiasm hy some K and opposed by others. The Jewish Alliance of French foundation and inspiration apposed it. Ben-Jehouda, disgusted, ’eft France and went to Vienna, where ho met a friend of his childhood, a due-eyed, golden-haired girl, who became his wife.

Together they set out for Palestine. They sailed slowly down the Danube end when they arrived at the Iron .lates a radiant sun was setting in •rimsbn glory. Moved by the wonderful sight, Ben-Jehouda suddenly seized his bride by the arm and cricw in Russian as though inspired, “ From this day we will speak nothing but Hebrew.” “ Yo.u are mad,” she replied, CI I do not know a single word.” “ 1 will teach you. My will shall be of iron like the gates that we are entering; of iron also must be your self-sacrifice. The child we dream of shall hear no other language but Hebrew.”-

He kept Ms word. As they landed at Jaffa he uttered to his bride the Hebrew word which signifies Hope.” Hebrew, for two humSn beings, had become a living language. It remained, however, to get it accepted by the Jews of Palestine. BenJehouda was not at the end of his tribulations. At Jerusalem he persisted in speaking nothing but Hebrew to his co-religiomsts; the devout Jews regarded him as mad and sacrilegious. He would walk through the streets shouting, “Jews, speak Hebrew! Speak Hebrew, and you will become once more a people.” The populace stoned him; the Rabbis excommunicated him; the editor of _ the little paper to which he contributed dismissed him.

In his distress he received the support of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and, thanks to him, was able to bring out a little paper, the ‘ Hatzevy 1 (‘The Glory’), which he devoted to the struggle for spoken Hebrew and in which he forged new words to express all that men have invented and thought since the captivity _ of Babylon. The first pioneers arriving from Russia, Rumania, Morocco, became his disciples : with them he created Hebrew clubs which soon spread to other countries; he introduced into the schools the teaching of science in Hebrew. In his own house all other languages were forbidden. He went into shops and asked for articles in Hebrew; if the storekeepers replied to him in another language he went out without buying; if they replied to him in Hebrew he paid double the price asked 1 . Such an argument was irresistible ’in poor Palestine, which only lived by the exploitation of tourists and pilgrims. The tongue of the prophets became a common language. A son was born in the Ben-Jehouda home-y-a splendid opportunity for an experiment. The father wished his son to hear no other word but Hebrew. But by the time he was three years old the child had not begun to talk. The more they spoke Hebrew to him the more he simply cried or laughed, but would not- speak a word. The mother was in despair. A great and famous Jewish scholar said to her, “ That's the result of sacrilege. Hebrew is written, but not spoken. Give up this folly; speak to the baby in a human language and he will ho all right.” The fourth anniversary of his birth having arrived without any change, the mother ventured l for the first time to sing him a Russian song. Ben-Jehouda heard it and flew into a violent rage; ho raved and stormed and struck the table a tremendous Wow with his fist; the inkstand broke and the books fell with a crash. The mother sobbed and all at once the child ran to his father and cried in Hebrew, “Papa.” He had spoken! He had spoken Hebrew. Hebrew had become a “ mother tongue.” This child is to-day Mr Ramar BenAvi, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement.

The news of this miracle spread and people began to translate into Hebrew, for the babies of Israel, Russian, French, Italian, and Pojish. songs. Disciples became legion, but the old Rabbis of Palestine were not appeased. The son of Ben-Jehouda had a pet doig which also understood Hebrew. One day the child was playing with the dog in front of a synagogue in Jerusalem and addressed it in Hebrew. This caused a scandal. The poor animal was stoned to death. He was buried in his master’s garden under a stone bearing the Hebrew inscription: “Here lies the first Jewish dog.”

Such were the romantic vicissitudes through which the old tongue of the prophets passed in the course of becoming once more an ordinary language. Ben-Jchouda realised his bold ambition. Barely 50 years after the birth of the first child to hear Hebrew spoken around his cradle, 13 years after the death of the tenacious instigator of this astonishing resurrection, nearly half a million Jews established! in Palestine speak Hebrew as their national language. All the schools teach Hebrew;. The newspapers are printed in Hebrew, political speeches are made in Hebrew, radio announcements are made in Hebrew, and Hebrew words are synchronised with cinema films. The use of Hebrew is spreading outside Palestine. More and more literary masterpieces are being translated into Hebrew. The old l tongue has become a cement binding together Jews that come from all the ends of the earth to the Promised Land,