The New York herald., 1920-01-04

Copyright, 1920, by the Netc York Herald
Company-AU Rights Reserrcd.l
ICopyight. Canada, By the Neo York
Herald CompGnyl
Much that is theoretical and purely pros
pective attaches to Zionism, but the visitor
70 Jerusalem today may find many evil
elences of the revived spirit of nationalism
among the Jews, such as colonies, schools.
hospitals and social service schemes.
OF unique interest is the movement for
the restoration of the ancient Hebrew Ian
guage. This has already attained such
firm foundation that there are today in
Palestine Jewish children who know no
other language than that of the sweet
singer of Israel"
So far as the Jews of the world have
distinctive speech today it is Yiddish,
which is a German dialect of corrupted
Hebrew. Yiddish is the language of the
ghettoes of Russia and Eastern Europe
Since the Jews of America are mostly i'm
migrants from these regions. they $50
speak Yiddish. Virtually there is no other
Jewish language In common use,
A Dream of n Zionist.
However widely dispersed the Jews
have never ceased to dream the great
dream of return to their own land One
man who went back TO Jerusalem and
remained an irrepressible Zionist in spite
of All obstacles saw that his people must
have back their own Language If they
ever hoped to claim their own land. So
he began a propaganda for the revival
OF Old Testament Hebrew. He launched
"A little paper in Jerusalem and a school
and, most practical of all, he began work
on a modern Hebrew dictionary.
That man is still in Jerusalem and as
full of fire and enthusiasm as ever and
by no means superannuated His son, Ben
Avi," is also back in Jerusalem with him
after having become a well known Zion
list speaker in America The son intro
duced me to the father and thus l was
set to looking into the present use of
ancient Hebrew in Palestine.
All classes of Jews, the modern Zionist
as well as the bigoted ecclesiastics from
Spain and Europe. found themselves in
agreement upon the proposition that the
children of Abraham should have back
their own tongue, the common heritage
and glory of all of them. in whatever di-
rection they had been scattered. Reasons
of national pride, of racial solidarity and
Of religious loyalty all urged the revival
of Biblical Hebrew as a spoken speech.
Bringing Hebrew Down to Date.
Since the time when the language of the
{.
tongue, great changes have come over the
ilization has created thousands of new OBJ
jects uses. customs and needs, and each
mas nad to have a set of words coined for
1T. All dictionaries have TO be revised reg
niarly. Nothing less than tremendous
changes are necessary to make the tongue
that passed current i'm Palestine three
thousand years ago fit for the needs of to-
day. David never talked about an auto
mobile or a train or a steamship or an air.
plane or a whole category OF modern sci
ence. discovery and education.
Zionism's dictionary maker is having the
fun of creating Hebrew words to fit all OF
these thousands of articles and express
sions. He does not want to take over bod
ily the foreign words and phrases, for the
uew-old Hebrew language should be con-
sistent in type and usage. Therefore he Is
adapting largely the Arabic translations
for the words missing from King Davd's
voca abulary modifying them as there is
need. Arabic and Hebrew arc closelN re-
lated languages, so this makes the lexicog-
rapher's task comparatively easy. The
new Hebrew dictionary is well on the way
toward publication.
Davids Tongue In David's City.
Despite the prevalence of Yiddish the
speech of Jewish immigrants to Palestine
from all sections of the earth differs
widely Therefore they are the reader TO
make the original Hebrew. brought down
to date, their common togue. SO schools
are in active operation i'm Jerusalem to-
day. where all subjects are taught in
Biblical Hebrew.
Riding from Jerusalem to Haifa In a
railway train one day ! had for COM
panions an English speaking Zionist and
his little son. The CHILD prattled away in
what took TO be Arabic but the father
proudly told me that the son spoke only
Hebrew. / recognized many OF his words
as almost the equivalent Of Arabic. but
the father explained the slight differ
ences. He further said that many Of
the child's paymates spoke Hebrew only
that he had no lack of companionshp.
So great has been the progress of the
movement for the restoration of the
Hebrew speech to the Hebrew people that
one may 20 into any OF the bazars in
Jerusalem commonly patronized by the
Jews and by speaking only Hebrew one
may be able TO transact ordinary busi-
ness When the Hcbrew-spealSing fashion
becomes universal it Will be a new bond
of solidarity for the Chosen People.