Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda (born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman; 7 January 1858 – 16 December 1922) was a Russian–Jewish linguist,

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

, and journalist who immigrated to Jerusalem in 1881, when the Ottoman Empire ruled it. He is renowned as the lexicographer of the first

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

dictionary and also as the editor of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

-based '' HaZvi'', one of the first Hebrew newspapers published in the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

. Ben-Yehuda was the primary driving force behind the

revival of the Hebrew language The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and the Levant region toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from purely the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and wr ...

Early life and education

Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman (later Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) was born in Luzhki in the Vilna Governorate of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now Vitebsk Oblast,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

) to Yehuda Leib and Tzipora Perlman, who were

Chabad Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of ...

'' hasidim''. His native language was

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

. He attended a Jewish elementary school (a ''

cheder A ''cheder'' (, lit. 'room'; Yiddish pronunciation: ''khéyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th century. L ...

'') where he studied

and the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

, and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

. His mother and uncle hoped he would become a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, and sent him to a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

. There he was exposed to the

of the Jewish Enlightenment, which included some secular writings. Later, he learned French, German, and Russian, and was sent to Dünaburg for further education. Reading the Hebrew-language newspaper '' HaShahar'', he became acquainted with the early movement of

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

. Upon graduation in 1877, Ben-Yehuda went to Paris for four years. While there, he studied various subjects at the

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

—including the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and politics of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. It was in Paris that he met a Jew from Jerusalem, who spoke Hebrew with him. It was this conversation that convinced him that the revival of Hebrew as the language of a nation was feasible.

Immigration to The Land of Israel

In 1881 Ben-Yehuda joined the

First Aliyah The First Aliyah (), also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (''aliyah'') to History of Israel#Ottoman period , Ottoman Palestine (region) , Palestine between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave cam ...

and immigrated to the

Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem The Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (, ; , , ), also known as the Sanjak of Jerusalem, was a district in Ottoman Syria with special administrative status established in 1872.Büssow (2011), p5Abu-Manneh (1999), p39Jankowski & Gershoni (1997), p174 T ...

, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and settled in

. He found a job teaching at the school of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop a new language that could replace

and other regional dialects as a means of everyday communication between Jews who moved to the

from various regions of the world. Ben-Yehuda regarded Hebrew and

as symbiotic, writing, "the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

can live only if we revive the nation and return it to the fatherland."

Revival of the Hebrew language

To accomplish the task, Ben-Yehuda insisted with the Committee of the Hebrew Language that, to quote the Committee records, "In order to supplement the deficiencies of the Hebrew language, the Committee coins words according to the rules of grammar and linguistic analogy from Semitic roots: Aramaic and especially from Arabic roots." In 1903 Ben-Yehuda, along with many members of the

Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah () was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia, with some from Yemen, immigrated into Ottoman Palestine. The Sec ...

, supported

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who was the father of Types of Zionism, modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organizat ...

's Uganda Scheme proposal. Ben‑Yehuda raised his son, Ben-Zion (meaning "son of Zion"), entirely in Hebrew. He did not allow his son to be exposed to other languages during childhood, and even berated his wife for singing a Russian lullaby. His son thus became the first

native speaker Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 novel by Chang-Rae Lee * ''Native Speaker'' (album), a 2011 album by Canadian band Braids * Native speaker, a person using their first language or mother tongue * Native spea ...

of Hebrew in modern times. Ben‑Yehuda later raised his daughter, Dola, entirely in Hebrew as well.

Lexicography

Ben-Yehuda was a major figure in the establishment of the Committee of the Hebrew Language (Va'ad HaLashon), later the

Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language (, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram cam ...

, an organization that still exists today. He was the initiator of the first modern Hebrew dictionary known as the Ben-Yehuda Dictionary and he became known as the "reviver" (המחיה) of the Hebrew language, despite opposition to some of the words he coined. Many of these words have become part of the language but others never caught on. Ancient languages and modern Standard Arabic were major sources for Ben-Yehuda and the Committee. According to Joshua Blau, quoting the criteria insisted on by Ben-Yehuda: "In order to supplement the deficiencies of the Hebrew language, the Committee coins words according to the rules of grammar and linguistic analogy from Semitic roots: Aramaic, Canaanite, Egyptian icones and especially from Arabic roots." Concerning Arabic, Ben-Yehuda maintained, inaccurately according to Blau, that Arabic roots are "ours": "the roots of Arabic were once a part of the Hebrew language ... lost, and now we have found them again!"

Opposition from Orthodox Jews

Ben-Yehuda was the editor of several Hebrew-language newspapers: ''HaZvi'' and ''

Hashkafa ''Hashkafa'' (; plural ''hashkafot'', ''hashkafos'', ''hashkafas'') is the Hebrew term for worldview and guiding philosophy, used almost exclusively within Orthodox Judaism. A ''hashkafa'' is a perspective that Orthodox Jews adopt that defines m ...

.'' ''HaZvi'' was closed down for a year in the wake of opposition from Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community, which fiercely objected to the use of Hebrew, their holy tongue, for everyday conversation. In 1908, its name changed to ''HaOr'', and it was shut down by the Ottoman government during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

due its support for a homeland for the Jewish people in the

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Many devoted Jews of the time did not appreciate Ben-Yehuda's efforts to resurrect the Hebrew language. They believed that Hebrew, which they learned as a biblical language, should not be used to discuss mundane and non-holy things. Others thought his son would grow up and become a "disabled idiot", and even

declared, after meeting Ben-Yehuda, that the thought of Hebrew becoming the modern language of the Jews was ridiculous. In December 1893, Ben-Yehuda and his father-in-law were imprisoned by the Ottoman authorities in Jerusalem following accusations by members of the Jewish community that they were inciting rebellion against the government.

Personal life

Ben-Yehuda was married twice, to two sisters. His first wife, Devora (née Jonas), died in 1891 of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, leaving him with five small children. Ben-Yehuda's son journalist Itamar Ben-Avi is the father of radio station head , who is in turn the mother of Ben-Yehuda's great-grandson TV presenter, culinary journalist, restaurant critic, and author Gil Hovav.Florina Pîrjol (July 8, 2016)
"Scriitorul Gil Hovav: „Bucătarii din ziua de astăzi sunt adevărate staruri rockm""
''Adevărul''.Adeena Sussman (June/July 2016)
"Gil Hovav, Israel's Leading Foodie,"
''Hadassah Magazine''.Jessica Steinberg (February 11, 2018)
"Celebrated Israeli foodie blends grub and family in new memoir; In ‘Candies from Heaven,’ TV personality Gil Hovav reminisces about coming of age in Jerusalem, peppered with recipes from his childhood,"
''The Times of Israel''.Dan Pine (April 9, 2010)
"Funny Israeli TV star wont be using a non-shtick pan when stirring the pot at S.F. restaurant,"
''J. The Jewish News of Northern California''. Her final wish was that Eliezer marry her younger sister, Paula Beila. Soon after his wife Devora's death, three of his children died of

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacteria, bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild Course (medicine), clinical course, but in some outbreaks, the mortality rate approaches 10%. Signs a ...

within a period of 10 days. Six months later, he married Paula, who took the Hebrew name "Hemda". Hemda Ben-Yehuda became an accomplished journalist and author in her own right, ensuring the completion of the Hebrew dictionary in the decades after Eliezer's death, as well as mobilising fundraising and coordinating committees of scholars in both Israel and abroad.

Death and legacy

In December 1922, Ben-Yehuda, 64, died of

, from which he suffered most of his life. He was buried on the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...

in Jerusalem. His funeral was attended by 30,000 people. Ben-Yehuda built a house for his family in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, but died three months before it was completed. His wife Hemda lived there for close to thirty years. Ten years after her death, her son Ehud transferred the title of the house to the Jerusalem municipality for the purpose of creating a museum and study center. Eventually it was leased to a church group from Germany who established a center there for young German volunteers. The house is now a conference center and guesthouse run by the German organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP), which organizes workshops, seminars and Hebrew language ulpan programs.

Cecil Roth Cecil Roth (5 March 1899 – 21 June 1970) was an English historian. He was editor-in-chief of the ''Encyclopaedia Judaica''. Life Roth was born in Dalston, London, on 5 March 1899. His parents were Etty and Joseph Roth, and Cecil was the younge ...

was quoted by historian Jack Fellman as having summed up Ben-Yehuda's contribution to the Hebrew language: "Before Ben‑Yehuda, Jews could speak Hebrew; after him, they did." There are no other examples of a

natural language A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages ...

without any native speakers subsequently acquiring several million native speakers, and no other examples of a

sacred language A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Some religions, or part ...

becoming a

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

with millions of "first language" speakers.

Notes

References

External links

* The personal papers of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda are kept at th
Central Zionist Archives
in Jerusalem. The notation of the record group is A43
An interview with Dola Ben-Yehuda Wittmann
(Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's daughter) at the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Yehuda, Eliezer 1858 births 1922 deaths 19th-century Jewish biblical scholars 19th-century Jews from the Russian Empire 19th-century linguists 19th-century journalists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Jewish biblical scholars 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis 20th-century Russian linguists 20th-century Russian Jews 20th-century Russian journalists Ashkenazi Jews from Ottoman Palestine Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Expatriates from the Russian Empire in France Grammarians of Hebrew Hebrew language Jewish grammarians Jewish journalists Jewish lexicographers Jewish printing and publishing Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Language reformers Modern Hebrew Orthographers People from Sharkawshchyna district People from Vilna Governorate Russian Ashkenazi Jews Russian-Jewish culture in Israel Tuberculosis deaths in Israel University of Paris alumni Zionists from the Russian Empire Immigrants to Ottoman Palestine Lexicographers of Hebrew Immigrants of the First Aliyah

Eliezer Eliezer () was the name of at least three different individuals in the Hebrew Bible. Eliezer of Damascus Eliezer of Damascus () was, according to Targum Jonathan Bereishit, 14:14, the son of Nimrod. As mentioned in Lech-Lecha#Sixth_reading— ...