What language is spoken in Israel? Hebrew?

Hebrew is the national language of the Jews and one of the oldest languages ??in the world. It belongs to a branch of the Semitic language family in the Middle East. It has no vowels and only 22 consonants. Its characters are written from right to left.

Many literary works and documents were created in this language, which today is mainly preserved in the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a large number of Jewish codes and documents.

In 70 BC, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the capital of the Jews. The Jews were expelled from their homes and scattered around the world. They adopted the language of their host country, causing Hebrew to gradually disappear as a spoken language (but continue to exist as a written language).

In the second half of the 19th century, there was a Jew who was determined to resurrect the Hebrew language. He is the Lithuanian Jewish youth Eliezer

Ben Yehuda. In 1879, Yehuda published a paper "Problems Concerning the Overall Situation", arguing that under the pressure of assimilation in the modern secular world, the Jewish nation faced major problems in its survival as a Jewish nation, and ** *A common language and a common homeland are necessary conditions for the existence of the Jewish nation. In order to ensure national continuity and national rejuvenation, Jews

must speak Hebrew again.

Yehuda was determined to speak only Hebrew when interacting with other Jews. His first child became the first child in nearly 2,000 years to speak Hebrew as his mother tongue. In 1884, he began to edit a weekly newspaper to further promote his ideas; at the same time, in order to prove that ancient proverbs could be reborn and used in modern society, he began to compile a book Dictionary and actively expand vocabulary. In December 1890, he formed a Hebrew Committee (now the Hebrew Language Institute) to develop this undertaking.

Later, Yehuda found some like-minded people who were willing to practice his language ideas. Not only did he require them to actively use Hebrew, he also insisted that the children of these pioneers learn it as their mother tongue.

Yes, Hebrew was taught in Jewish schools in Palestine at that time, but it was only taught as an ancient language for understanding religions and scriptures. Therefore, Yehuda's request had little impact on the Jews who ancestrally lived in the Holy Land and the pioneers who had settled there for many years. However, young immigrants are eager to start a new life, and many are happy to let their children learn this unpracticed language.

In this budding education system, it is not difficult to imagine the difficulties encountered in the attempt to establish Hebrew, as

The teacher at the time said: "The atmosphere is thick and depressing. It’s hard to imagine and describe how the first seed was planted.

We were like dumb people, stammering, and needed help from our hands and eyes.”

After arduous exploration, By the time of World War I, there were 64 kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and vocational schools in Palestine that all used Hebrew.

Finally, the children entering school saw themselves as champions and defenders of the Hebrew cause. There was a report: Someone snatched a rag doll from a little girl. The girl, who had only been attending school for a month, was startled. She grabbed the man's sleeve and shouted in Hebrew: "Give it back to me! Give it back to me!" The man pretended not to listen. Yes, the girl was asked to speak Yiddish, but the girl insisted on speaking Hebrew and would rather lose her doll.

On the eve of World War I, Jewish charities in Germany funded the construction of a technical college in Haifa

(later Haifa Polytechnic University). Planners believed that since German was an internationally recognized language, lectures in the new college would be in German. After the news was disclosed, Jews in the Palestinian area held a series of demonstrations, strikes, boycotts and protest rallies, and the opening ceremony was postponed.

Similarly, other schools began to teach their entire curriculum in Hebrew. By the end of World War I, Hebrew was the only language of instruction at technical colleges; the first generation of Hebrew-speaking families emerged. In 1925, the establishment of the University of Greece became a national event.

According to statistics from 1916 to 1917, 34,000 of the 85,000 Jews in Palestine used Hebrew as their first or daily language. Significantly, 75% of children and 3

3% of adults in the agricultural settlement villages and Tel Aviv city speak Hebrew. The continuation of the Hebrew language was assured.

On September 29, 1923, the British Mandate recognized the status of Hebrew: "Arabic, English and Hebrew are the official languages ??of the region."

Although the Hebrew language has withstood many challenges before and after the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, with the number of immigrants often exceeding

the number of original residents, Hebrew Chinese’s status as a living language has never wavered.

Now, Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel and is spoken by 5 million people.

The Jews have always been a nation that I respect. Although I disagree with some of their practices, it is undeniable that they are a great nation. If they had one billion people, What a terrifying force that would be! Looking back at our Chinese nation, we should really feel ashamed. Our national self-esteem is also very strong. However, almost all of it is based on illusions. When we are When asked why we love our nation and what we love about our nation, I think most people will feel lacking confidence because we really don’t have much to be proud of.

(Actually, patriotism does not require many reasons. A son does not think his mother is ugly, and a dog does not think his family is poor. Everyone should know this.) We

forget history and deny reality, such as Like duckweed, it has no roots and no support. When it is really necessary to do something practical and far-sighted for the country and the nation, it will be scattered all over the place and it will be difficult to succeed! On the contrary, we have done too many things that harm the country and nation

. The New Culture Movement was a period of great openness in China's thinking, and it was also a period when Chinese traditional

culture was greatly damaged. We overturned traditional ideas and moral values, and we did not truly establish Western "advanced"

"Ideology and culture are just some messed up ideological freaks. China's language and characters were also severely impacted at that time. There was a trend of completely denying Chinese characters and fully advocating alphabetization. No country or nation in the world has ever cursed its own language so viciously. Fortunately, their sinister purpose did not succeed. However, the legacy is so deep that it still lingers today. , look at now in China, English is a first-class citizen, and Chinese can only be regarded as second-class or third-class. Does English really need to be pushed to such a high level? I doubt it. Not only the language, our traditional thoughts and morals, traditional living habits, national costumes, etc. have been almost thrown away. It is undeniable that there is dross in the tradition, but we even occupy the majority Part of the essence has been thrown away together. These are the true roots of our nation, the true national centripetal center that transcends time, space and political prejudice.

The Hebrew language, which has been dead for 2,000 years, can be resurrected

When will we be able to pick up what we have just thrown away for decades?