Soccer Dad

Hebrew Is Alive And Well--Among The Arabs

An article in Haaretz about Hebrew Renaissance notes that

Hebrew is alive and well. At least in the Arab and Druze communities. For students from those sectors, the Hebrew language has become the new business administration - a social and professional catapult to get ahead and succeed in life. The sticklers add Hebrew literature, too. It's a triumph of practicality over ideology. The traditional attitude that language is part of national identity and that to study Hebrew is to cross the line, has given way to the quiet conquest of the Hebrew Language Department - at the University of Haifa by Arabs from the north and at Ben-Gurion University by Bedouin from the south. The graduates are almost always assured of a teaching job, which brings with it a livelihood, honor and prestige, relatively speaking. Hebrew is obligatory in every Arab and Bedouin elementary and high school, and good teachers are in high demand.

We are not talking about a casual understanding to Hebrew either--the article mentions Masters theses being done by Arabs on topics such as "connective clauses in spoken Hebrew discourse" and "predicative complements."

This is a general overall trend among Israeli Arabs as a whole. Back in May, an article in The Forward mentioned another article in Haaretz that indicated that while Israeli Arabs might not accept the idea of a Jewish state, they were slowly absorbing Hebrew words--possibly unconsciously--into their everyday speech:

What are the Hebrew words that creep most commonly into the speech of Israeli Arabs? They seem to divide between everyday expressions of social intercourse on the one hand, and words for things or situations that are associated by Arabs with Israeli culture on the other. Haaretz lists some words that belong to the second category, such as ramzor (traffic light), mah.som (checkpoint), g'lidah (ice cream), lah.maniyah (bakery roll) and sulamit (the hash sign on telephone dials). Belonging to the first category are words like b'seder (all right, okay), b'vakasha (please) and me'anyen (interesting).

The Forward article suggests the possibility of the linguist assimilation by Israeli Arabs of the Hebrew language--but while that appears to be a positive development, what are we to make of the opposite trend manifesting itself among Jews?

Hillel Halkin wrote in Commentary Magazine back in June about The Translator's Paradox:

Here, then, is a great historical irony. As long as Hebrew was the first language of no educated Jew in the world, it was the second language of every educated Jew; now that it has become the mother tongue of millions of Jews in the state of Israel, it has largely ceased to be studied by Jews elsewhere. It has in effect been demoted to a Judeo-Israeli, a new Jewish regional speech. In both relative and absolute numbers, far more Israeli and Palestinian Arabs now have a working command of it than do American Jews.

As an example of how the status of Hebrew has declined, take a look at the book How the Hebrew Language Grew,written in 1960 by Edward Horowitz. On the back cover, there is a bio
of the author that indicates how popular the study of Hebrew in New York City public schools used to be:

Edward Horowitz was one of the pioneer teachers of Hebrew in the public high schools of New York. He was influential in spreading the study of Hebrew within the junior and senior high schools. Dr. Horowitz was president of the American Association of Teachers of Hebrew and served for twenty years as Chairman of the Hebrew Department at Thomas Jefferson High School. He is the author of Sippurim Kallim and Sippurim Latalmid, collections of simple Hebrew stories widely used throughout this country.

I find the fact that Hebrew was taught in public schools, and in New York City starting in 1930--before the re-establishment of the state of Israel--pretty amazing. Even today, the American Association of Teachers of Hebrew is still around, but I don't know if there are any public schools in New York--or in the US--that still teach Hebrew.

We Jews are spoiled by success. Who needs Hebrew when you have Artscroll and even when in Israel everyone speaks English.

Actually, Hebrew is not doing so well in Israel either. According to the Hebrew Renaissance article in Haaretz quoted earlier:

At all the country's universities, Hebrew studies are in decline. "The humanities are in a bad way," says Prof. Chaim Cohen, head of the Hebrew Language Department at Ben-Gurion University, "and the departments of Bible studies and Hebrew language are at the top of the list." But it's the same at all the country's universities. These departments are rapidly shrinking, with enrollment standing at less than 1 percent of all humanities students, at most, as in Haifa. They are surviving as best they can.

This is all part of a developing disdain for studying the humanities in general. Prof. Chaim Cohen, head of the Hebrew Language Department at Ben-Gurion University laments:

Everyone wants biotechnology, business administration and economics, and this is something new. But I cannot imagine that a department of Hebrew language or Bible will be shut down. It is inconceivable that people should complete a first degree in Israel without knowing anything about their heritage.

From the article, it appears there is a realization of the negative trend and an attempt in Israel to reverse it--assuming Israelis can deal with the stiff competition from Israeli Arabs.

The remaining question is what will be the future of Hebrew--and of Jews--here is Golus.

by Daled Amos Posted by daledamos at November 18, 2008 1:04 AM