The Hebrew Revolution and the Revolution of the Hebrew Language between the 1880s and the 1930s Judith Winther Copenhagen The new Hebrew culture which began to crys- Eliezer Ben Yehudah was born in 1858, tallize in the land of Israel from the end of the Ben Gurion in 1886, and Berl Kazenelson in last century, is a successful event of "cultural 1887. planning". During a relatively short period of As a man who was not active in the so- time a little group of"culture planners" succee- cialist Jewish movement Ben Yehudah's dedi- ded in creating a system which in a significant cation to Hebrew is probably comprehensible. way was adapted to the requested Zionist ide- But why should a prominent socialist like Berl ology. The fact that the means by which the Kazenelson stick to the spoken Hebrew langu- "cultural planning" was realized implicated a age? A man, who prior to his immigration to heroic presentation of the happenings that led Palestine was an anti-Zionist, ridiculed Hebrew to a pathetical view of the development. It and was an enthusiastic devotee of Yiddish? presented the new historical ocurrences in Pa- The explanation is to be found in the vi- lestine as a renaissance and not as a continu- tal necessity which was felt by the pioneers ation of Jewish history, as a break and not as of the second Aliyah to achieve at all costs a continuity of the past. break from the past, from the large world of the The decision to create a political and a Russian revolutionary movements, from Rus- Hebrew cultural renaissance was laid down by sian culture, and Jewish Russian culture. This the pioneers of the second Aliyah (1904-1914), break was the main condition that made it pos- the leading group in the land during two deca- sible for the pioneers to strike root in the land. des. As the pioneers of the second Aliyah stuck The superb tool to enforce the breaking off was to the spoken Hebrew language, they transfor- the Hebrew language and thought, which in med the practice into a holy principle and used this way would sever the connection with the every means in order to implant it. past and thereby allow something new to strike Eliezer Ben Yehudah (Perlman) (who cor- root in an entirely different ground. rectly or incorrectly is said to be the father From the commencement of the first Ali- of the new Hebrew language) immigrated to yah (1881) and till the establishment of the the land in 1881 and hitched his wagon to the state of Israel a culture developed within the hard work of the renewal of the spoken Hebrew new Jewish Yishuv in the land of Israel which language. Ben Yehudah saw in spoken Hebrew gradually became exclusive, unique and diffe- a miraculous remedy which would give life its rent, both from that of the old Yishuv and from value and content, and would solve all cultural that of the Jews in other countries. problems. His saying was: "Speak Hebrew and This culture I will designate as Hebrew not you will be healthy" . because it is bound to the Hebrew language but 73 principally because of the specific meaning of the Diaspora brought about profound uphea- this term which began to crystallize inside this vals. The transition to manual work (princi- culture itself in the period under discussion. pally agriculture), tilling the soil, self-defence Throughout the period which began with and use of weapons, changing from Jewish to the new Yishuv (1880s) and up to the establish- other clothes (including the bedouin and cher- ment of the state, the word 'Hebrew' to a great kessian garb), changing frorn Yiddish (the de- extent denoted "The Jews of the land of Is- spised language of the exile) to a new spoken rael", in other words Jews who were not ty- language—Hebrew, which at one and the same pical of the Jews in the Diaspora. 'Hebrew' time was regarded as the authentic and ancient meant "The new Jewish Israeli man—in the tongue, adapting the Sephardi pronunciation land of Israel". It is no accident that in the of the syllables and not the Ashkenazi, chan- Israeli Declaration of Independence the terms ging foreign family names to Hebrew names— 'Hebrew' and 'Jew' are used in different con- all this was part of the realization of the "new texts. Thus it is said: "We stretch out a hand Hebrew man" in contrast to the "Diaspora of peace to all the neighbouring states and ap- Jew". peal to them to cooperate with the indepen- It must be emphasized that the decision to dent Hebrew nation in its land ..."; vis-à-vis establish Hebrew as a spoken language in the "Our call goes out to the Jewish people in the last two decades of the 19th century was not Diaspora ...". But there is no doubt that after generally agreed upon nor accepted, even by 1948 the use of 'Hebrew' declines gradually in central figures who participated in the creation favour of 'Jew', and the common denominator of the new-old Hebrew language. Neither did it of"the Jews" overcomes the difference between immediately gain a hearing among the pioneers 'Hebrew' and 'Jews'. of the first Aliyah. On the contrary: there The Jewish culture in Eastern Europe was was objection to give priority to the Hebrew looked upon by the pioneers as a declining, language in the settlements. Practical know- sinking and negative culture. In their eyes one ledge of Hebrew was quite limited. For ex- ought to get rid of this culture and free oneself ample in the settlement of Rishon Lezion there from its negative components. The assimilated was strong resistance against the etablishment Jew wished to extricate himself totally from it. of a Hebrew high school. Teachers who wanted The first pioneers in the 1880s—the so- to establish such a school, were practically for- called Hibbat Zion pioneers—and later the Zio- ced to leave the settlement. Finally, the high nist pioneers who absorbed the philosophy of school was established in Yaffo. the Jewish Enlightenment, saw only one way There are many evidences from the period to extricate themselves from Jewish culture: which point at the fact that Hebrew cannot be namely through the return of the nation to a regarded as being a real living language in the "pure", "authentic" existence in its land. The pioneering settlements of the first Aliyah. The concept of this existence was part of the spi- mastery of the language was defective and par- rit of the romantic literature in general, and tial. The preference of the Sephardi syllable- in Hebrew literature in particular, which dealt pronunciation cannot be explained exclusively with "the early ancient history of the nation by the fact that the Sephardi community in Je- in its old ancient land" . Many of the negative rusalem supported spoken Hebrew, nor by the stereotypes which the gentiles had about Jews fact that Nisim Bechar opened the Kiah school were absorbed by the young pioneers into their in Jerusalem for the Hebrew language (Kiah is philosophy. Both in the literature of the En- the Hebrew name of the Franco-Jewish "Alli- lightenment and in the romantic literature the ance" Organization), nor by the fact that Elie- Jews were presented as detached from reality, zer Ben Yehudah was apparently persuaded by rootless, weak, dishonest, incapable of working, the judgement of a priest working in the French haters of drink and food, dissociated from na- Hospital in Jerusalem who gave a verdict in fa- ture, etc. vour of the Sephardi pronunciation. The total negation of Jewish existence in The most important point of these two de- 74 cisions: to accept Hebrew and to do it in the What is the meaning of this distinction Sephardi form, is that the Hebrew language re- between Hebrew and Jew, between Hebraism presented the opposition to Yiddish, and that and Judaism? The important philosopher of the Sephardi pronunciation represented the op- culture and art Jacacov Klazkin (1882-1948) position to the Ashkenazi. That is to say they negated totally the Zionistic Diaspora. Alre- formed an opposition to the "exile", to the "Di- ady in 1920 he understood the significance of aspora", to the old. This condition forrned the process which was taking place in the land a much stronger factor than any principle or of Israel. In an article published in the New learned discussion about the "correct pronun- York periodical Miklat Shelter, he rnaintained ciation". that clear differences between the new Hebrew Yishuv in the land of Israel and the Jews in the During the second half of the 1920s the Hebrew Diaspora was emerging. Both established, ac- revolution which passed over the new Hebrew cording to Klazkin, separate national entities. Yishuv was at its highest. Zionistic ideology The rnore the character of the new Hebrew as well as cultural and social activities were Yishuv in the land crystallized the more the dominated by the idea that it is necessary to difference between thern would grow stronger. strive truly and honestly towards the creation Then, Klazkin maintained, the Jewish people of a new Hebrew nation and a new Hebrew would be divided into two groups: a Hebrew man in the land of Israel, i.e. no longer Jewish group in the land of Israel and a Jewish group but Hebrew. In speech and writing this new in the Diaspora. Israeli man and his institutions were very of- ten accompanied by the adjective `ivri, Hebrew Uri Zvi Greenberg—the greatest Hebrew (in plural `ivriyim, differentiating them from poet in the 20th century—gave expression to Jews in the Diaspora and their institutions.