The Hebrew University Jerusalem

A common language links between people in present life, but language also links its speakers to their common history and to a common identity rooted in the past (Prof. Yasir Suleiman, Cambridge University)

Practical and communicative approach Culture and heritage Modern everyday life

- A miracle? linguistic? social? - A revival? process

During all these years: - Prayers in Hebrew - reading of the bible in synagogues - Sporadic Hebrew speech between Jews from different countries In Jerusalem’s markets: Sephardic Jews (Ladino, Arabic), Ashkenazy Jews (Yiddish): For commercial needs Is this “speech”? Not a native tongue

Immigrated to Israel 1881, Jerusalem nationalism: - the need to live in a common country (Israel) - the need to speak Hebrew Spoke only Hebrew Taught “Hebrew in Hebrew” Established newspapers in Hebrew Made up new words in Hebrew and used them in his newspapers Wrote a dictionary (old and new words) Established associations and groups of Hebrew speakers, and a language committee which later became “The Academy of the Hebrew Language”

1890: Hebrew is the teaching language in schools in certain places in Israel 1898: Hebrew speaking kindergartens From kids> to parents> to the community Between : First native speaking children were born

Schools were supported by Jewish organizations abroad. Therefore taught in French, German Parents objected: unuseful language, will not prepare the students for high education No text books Lack of words

1903/4: Language committee was established following teacher’s demand Teachers Hebrew committee Teachers made up new words according to their needs The committee began creating words for entire disciplines. lists of terms (carpentry)

1908: Two Hebrew speaking high schools (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv) Second stage of the revival: The public space Gatherings, Public activities Tel – Aviv “The first Hebrew city”, Street signs in Hebrew -Advertisements on store in Hebrew Publishing of textbooks Children songs Tel- Aviv

1918: Cornerstone for Hebrew university, Jerusalem (Opened 1925) 1916 – 1918: 34,000 of 85,000 Jews in Israel (40%) declared that their main language was Hebrew 1922: Hebrew – one of the 3 official languages in Israel (English, Arabic and Hebrew)

2009: 9,000,000 Speakers of Hebrew, most of them live in Israel 5,300,000 native speakers of Hebrew

Communicating in a new language - First stages in a new language Reading and writing in a new language: Teaching vocabulary and basic structures via reading and writing skills. From the word to the text through the sentence: Syntactical structures in a natural context Morphology within a communicative context Text and culture: teaching texts as a source of culture

Listening to Hebrew: developing Listening comprehension in various methods Visit Hebrew classes Designing a lesson: Integration of the components into a whole vital lesson

New materials Sami teachers –kindergarten, schools Enthusiasm, ideology, belief patience