While the Bible and some religious texts were written in ancient Hebrew, it hadn’t been spoken in daily life for centuries.
In fact, Hebrew hadn’t been a living, breathing language since way back in the time of the Bar Kochva revolt in 135 CE.
Given the situation, it’s hardly surprising that Theodor Herzl – the father of modern Zionism – thought the language of the future Jewish state should be German.
Others disagreed. And one man – Eliezer Ben Yehuda – made the revival of the Hebrew language his life’s work.
While history remembers Ben Yehuda as being solely responsible for the rebirth of Modern History, the truth is a little different. Without this determined linguist, however, the language of modern Israel would be very different from what we hear today.
