MODERN HEBREW

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11411, 6 January 1923, Page 6

MODERN HEBREW

DEATH OF FOUNDER. LONDON, December 19. Tho death is announced of Mr Abraham Z. Idelsohn. (Ben Jehudah), at the age of 62, says tho correspondent of the “Times” at' Jerusalem. Mr Idelsohn was the founder of Hebrew as a modem language. H» arrived in Palestine 42 years ago, hut was ridiculed when h© announced hi& ideal that Jews should speak the language of their fathers. He was the first to use Hebrew in daily life. Abraham Z. Idelsohn was a master at the school of the German Hebrew Help -Society in Jerusalem. Ho was an enthusiast for Hebrew as a modern language, and in th© course of his teacher’s work in Palestine he developed the idea of preparing and publishing a great dictionary of modern Hebrew. Thus ho became a great force in -widening th© ancient tongue of tho Scriptures to become a vehicle of modern thought and activity, as it has become among th© Jewish colonists in New Palestine. In this he was only applying to practical life the work of the numerous Hebrew novelists and poets who, with the spread of modern education in Eastern Europe, opened up contemporary literature to many millions who were barred by political and social disabilities from the language of their neighbours. Mr Idelsohn in his literary -work took th© name of “Ben Jehudah,” after tho ancient that being his father’s natne.