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171-500: Israelis ( Hebrew : יִשְׂרְאֵלִים‎ , romanized :  Yīśreʾēlīm ; Arabic : إسرائيليون , romanized :  Isrāʾīliyyūn ) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel . The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs , who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure, followed by other ethnic and religious minorities , who account for 5 percent. Early Israeli culture

342-652: A considerable diaspora , which largely overlaps with the Jewish diaspora but also with that of other ethnic and religious groups; it is estimated that almost 10 percent of the general Israeli population lives abroad, particularly in Russia (with Moscow housing the single largest Israeli community outside of Israel), India , Canada , the United Kingdom , the United States , and throughout Europe. As of 2013, Israel's population

513-531: A Facebook website coined a snowclone and the so-called 'pudding or milky protest' in Israel, as the prices for comparable household items in Germany are rather low in comparison. Israeli Band Shmemels' song parodying Jerusalem of Gold with the notion, 'Jacob went down to Egypt, because the rent was a third and salaries double - Reichstag of Peace, Euro and Light' grew as well famous in the context. According to Haaretz,

684-674: A Hebrew form. Medieval Hebrew added 6421 words to (Modern) Hebrew. The approximate number of new lexical items in Israeli is 17,000 (cf. 14,762 in Even-Shoshan 1970 [...]). With the inclusion of foreign and technical terms [...], the total number of Israeli words, including words of biblical, rabbinic and medieval descent, is more than 60,000. In Israel, Modern Hebrew is currently taught in institutions called Ulpanim (singular: Ulpan). There are government-owned, as well as private, Ulpanim offering online courses and face-to-face programs. Modern Hebrew

855-583: A century ago, was fluent enough in this idiom to be able to follow the Mishna Berurah without any trouble." Hebrew has been revived several times as a literary language, most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th-century Germany. In the early 19th century, a form of spoken Hebrew had emerged in the markets of Jerusalem between Jews of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate for commercial purposes. This Hebrew dialect

1026-649: A corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Moshe Zvi Segal , Joseph Klausner and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946–1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to

1197-562: A distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic. ) Another important influence was Maimonides , who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah . Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and

1368-523: A far-right coalition and policies perceived as undermining democracy. This was often framed as an option for remote workers. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin notes the American Jewish community's ambivalent response to yordim persists: "generally secular yordim shun involvement in Jewish communal life, and maintain social ties only with each other." Rob Eshman notes that Israeli emigrants have been treated by local Jews "as something less than full members of

1539-579: A gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904–1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with

1710-481: A leader of the Israeli group Peace Now , noted, "As soon as our people hear Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], they turn off the radio. They have gone on 'inner yerida'." In 2008 in the context of an ideological crisis in Israel caused by record-low and shrinking aliya figures, Israel's Immigration Absorption Ministry embarked on a new mission targeting Israeli emigrants, the 'Israeli' Diaspora, in addition to

1881-463: A literary language down through the Byzantine period from the 4th century CE. The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with

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2052-532: A literary language, especially in Spain, as the language of commerce between Jews of different native languages, and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew , until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In May 2023, Scott Stripling published the finding of what he claims to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, a curse tablet found at Mount Ebal , dated from around 3200 years ago. The presence of

2223-657: A monarchy to rule over the previously decentralised Israelite tribal confederacy. Increasing pressure from the Philistines and other neighboring tribes is said by the Bible to have forced the Israelites to unite as a more singular state. The northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed in c.  720 BCE by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its population was forcibly restructured through imperial policy. The southern Kingdom of Judah

2394-557: A much higher rate in highly educated people who go instead of those with mandatory education. In light of the current situation, parents have come together to try to bring Israeli scientists home. They say there are not enough grants or conditions offered for those who emigrate from Israel, specifically the young. The other countries offer better opportunities with their research centers and funding, allowing that sufficient qualified income to support themselves financially while often going through school. Polls amongst emigrants have shown that

2565-593: A passport to expedite travel to countries that may be less welcoming or even forbidden for Israeli passport holders. Some polls, such as the Gallup World Poll in 2007, revealed that a significant number of Israelis, 20 percent, would ideally, if they had the opportunity, move permanently to another country. This was in the mid-range of desire to migrate and less than, for example, the residents of Denmark, Belgium, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Poland, Hungary, South Korea and Chile. The 'push factor' bringing about migration

2736-531: A phenomenon known in Hebrew as yerida ("descent", in contrast to aliyah , which means "ascent"). Emigrants have various reasons for leaving, but there is generally a combination of economic and political concerns. The main Israeli ethnic and religious groups are as follows: Among the Israeli-born Jewish population, most are descended from Ashkenazi Jews , Mizrahi Jews , Sephardic Jews , Ethiopian Jews , and other Jewish ethnic divisions . Due to

2907-406: A renouncement of foreign citizenship and the voluntary attainment of a foreign citizenship can result in the loss of citizenship in that country. For example, 220 Israeli diplomats to the U.S. received ' Green card ' or Permanent Resident Alien status between 1966 and 1979, but the likelihood is low that these career Israeli government officials permanently emigrated from Israel. Rather, they gained

3078-698: A returning resident in the past. According to demographer Pini Herman, this circular migration has been an economic boon to Israel. Israel does not have the technological, academic, and other infrastructural resources to absorb its disproportionate number of highly trained and skilled population, second only to the United States. As a result, many Israelis have worked overseas for extended periods of time. Upon their return, they have often attracted or repatriated with them to Israel new infrastructure, such as that provided by companies like as Intel , Google , Microsoft , and IBM . The rejection of emigration from Israel

3249-535: A set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba revolt around 135 CE. In

3420-545: A special program by the Immigrant Absorption Minister of Israel was announced, intended to encourage Israeli emigrants to return to Israel. It was further decided that by 2008 the Ministry would invest 19 million shekels to establish lucrative absorption plans for the returning emigrants. (see: Taxation in Israel ). Until then, 4,000 Israeli expatriates returned each year. In 2008, these numbers began growing. Since

3591-603: A spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt , they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms. After

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3762-541: A suit. In 2007, Ornan's suit was joined by former minister Shulamit Aloni and other activists. In the ruling, Justice Hanan Melcer noted Israel currently considers "citizenship and nationality [to be] separate." The term "Israelite" refers to members of the Jewish tribes and polities of the Iron Age known from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical historical and archaeological sources. The term "Israeli", by contrast, refers to

3933-468: A truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology , was to take its place among the current languages of the nations. While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of

4104-549: A vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee , Pharisee , Scribe , Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from Hebrew texts. While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its chief successor in

4275-560: A welcome or assistance which would encourage the Israeli emigrants to stay. Israeli emigrants have buttressed local Jewish diaspora communities. The apparent return of many Israeli emigrants to Israel was considered a sign of the severity of the Great Recession and noted by Jewish-American media outlets. For instance, there is a contentious debate in the New Jersey Jewish community over the high rates of yerida to Teaneck . While

4446-606: A yerida policy in their manifestos, and winners may assign a minister or deputy to address it. Legislation in the Knesset is frequently debated over its potential impact on yerida. Activists in Israeli protest movements, especially after wars and concerning economic and ethnic equality, have threatened to emigrate as a form of protest, sometimes publicly burning their ID cards. In the 1970s, an Israeli Black Panther protesting for ethnic equality emigrated to Morocco amid media attention, only to return to Israel later. In 1998 Janet Aviad,

4617-641: Is 8 million, of which the Israeli civil government records 75.3% as Jews , 20.7% as non-Jewish Arabs , and 4.0% other. Israel's official census includes Israeli settlers in the occupied territories (referred to as " disputed " by Israel). 280,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank , 190,000 in East Jerusalem , and 20,000 in the Golan Heights . Among Jews, 70.3% were born in Israel ( sabras ), mostly from

4788-511: Is 8198, of which some 2000 are hapax legomena (the number of Biblical Hebrew roots, on which many of these words are based, is 2099). The number of attested Rabbinic Hebrew words is less than 20,000, of which (i) 7879 are Rabbinic par excellence, i.e. they did not appear in the Old Testament (the number of new Rabbinic Hebrew roots is 805); (ii) around 6000 are a subset of Biblical Hebrew; and (iii) several thousand are Aramaic words which can have

4959-568: Is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period ) and Samaritanism . The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and

5130-654: Is a central assumption in all forms of Zionism as a corollary of the concept of the Negation of the Diaspora in Zionist ideology, which, according to Eliezer Schweid , was a central tenet of Israeli Zionist education until the 1970s when there was a need for Israel to reconcile itself with the Jewish diaspora and its massive support of Israel following the Six-Day War . Many believe that

5301-435: Is a real problem." Another way in which the ideation of migration is demonstrated is in the relatively high number of Israelis who seek citizenship of European Union countries, (where in 2007 an estimated 42 percent of Israelis are eligible for citizenship based on their parents' and grandparents' nationalities). More than 4,000 Israelis received German citizenship in 2007, a 50 percent increase over 2005. A recent survey by

Israelis - Misplaced Pages Continue

5472-659: Is also a significant African population in the southern Israeli cities of Eilat, Arad and Beer Sheva. Approximately 100–200 refugees from Bosnia , Kosovo , and North Korea live in Israel as refugees, most of them with Israeli resident status. Through the years, the majority of Israelis who emigrated from Israel went to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is currently estimated that there are 330,000 native-born Israelis, including 230,000 Jews, living abroad, or even more. The number of immigrants to Israel who later returned to their home countries or moved elsewhere

5643-653: Is also a significant population of Israeli Druze , estimated at 117,500 at the end of 2006. All Druze in British Mandate Palestine became Israeli citizens upon the foundation of the State of Israel. There are about 7,000 Maronite Christian Israelis, living mostly in the Galilee but also in Haifa , Nazareth , and Jerusalem . They are mostly pro-Israeli Lebanese former militia members and their families who fled Lebanon after

5814-552: Is disputed and controversial, but it is estimated that at least 16,000 refugees, mainly from Eritrea , Sudan , South Sudan , Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast , reside and work in Israel. A check in late 2011, published in Ynet reported that the number just in Tel Aviv is 40,000, which represents 10 percent of the city's population. The vast majority lives in the southern parts of the city. There

5985-717: Is estimated at 200–400. Most of them came to Israel between 1976 and 1979, after the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin granted them political asylum. The Vietnamese people living in Israel are Israeli citizens who also serve in the Israel Defense Forces . Today, the majority of the community lives in the Gush Dan area in the center of Israel but also a few dozen Vietnamese-Israelis or Israelis of Vietnamese origin live in Haifa , Jerusalem and Ofakim . The number and status of African refugees in Israel

6156-514: Is fighting to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services. In 2012, a Knesset bill for the preservation of the Hebrew language was proposed, which includes the stipulation that all signage in Israel must first and foremost be in Hebrew, as with all speeches by Israeli officials abroad. The bill's author, MK Akram Hasson , stated that the bill was proposed as a response to Hebrew "losing its prestige" and children incorporating more English words into their vocabulary. Hebrew

6327-412: Is more difficult to calculate. For many years definitive data on Israeli emigration was unavailable. In The Israeli Diaspora sociologist Stephen J. Gold maintains that calculation of Jewish emigration has been a contentious issue, explaining, "Since Zionism, the philosophy that underlies the existence of the Jewish state, calls for return home of the world's Jews, the opposite movement – Israelis leaving

6498-429: Is often reflected in quality of life perceptions. In terms of self ranked quality of life Israelis rate their own lives on a scale numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top, Israelis' average rating in 2007 was 6.84, which is far higher than the 4 average for the world and compares with Denmark's 8, among the world's top. Younger Israeli age groups, such as teens, express a much higher desire to live abroad than

6669-513: Is one of several languages for which the constitution of South Africa calls to be respected in their use for religious purposes. Also, Hebrew is an official national minority language in Poland , since 6 January 2005. Hamas has made Hebrew a compulsory language taught in schools in the Gaza Strip. Yerida Common reasons for emigration given are the high cost of living, a desire to escape from

6840-460: Is permissible to emigrate from Israel for marriage, to study Torah or to support oneself, including in cases where famine is not present. In any case, emigration from Israel and even temporary departure is not thought of in Orthodox or traditional Judaism as a worthy act for a man. It is difficult to estimate the number of people who emigrated from Ottoman and Mandate Palestine between the start of

7011-526: Is reason to believe that a significant pattern of return, hazara ( חזרה hazara , "return"), has been described as returning to Israel after relatively long periods, of at least a year or more, where homes and livelihoods have to be established or re-established. Most Israelis who emigrate do not leave permanently, and eventually return home after an extended period abroad. This circular migration may be especially pronounced for highly skilled and highly educated Israeli migrants and their families. In 2007

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7182-506: Is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival . It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic , still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew , with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around

7353-405: Is the primary official language of the State of Israel. As of 2013 , there are about 9 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, of whom 7 million speak it fluently. Currently, 90% of Israeli Jews are proficient in Hebrew, and 70% are highly proficient. Some 60% of Israeli Arabs are also proficient in Hebrew, and 30% report having a higher proficiency in Hebrew than in Arabic. In total, about 53% of

7524-536: Is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however, properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting

7695-630: The Chayei Adam in Hebrew, as opposed to Yiddish , as a guide to Halacha for the " average 17-year-old" (Ibid. Introduction 1). Similarly, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan 's purpose in writing the Mishnah Berurah was to "produce a work that could be studied daily so that Jews might know the proper procedures to follow minute by minute". The work was nevertheless written in Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic, since, "the ordinary Jew [of Eastern Europe] of

7866-564: The 2000 withdrawal of IDF from South Lebanon . Some, however, are from local Galilean communities such as Jish . There are about 1,000 Coptic Israeli citizens. In September 2014, Israel recognized the "Aramean" ethnic identity of hundreds of the Christian citizens of Israel. This recognition comes after about seven years of activity by the Aramean Christian Foundation in Israel – Aram, led by IDF Major Shadi Khalloul Risho and

8037-705: The Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος ( hebraîos ) and Aramaic 'ibrāy , all ultimately derived from Biblical Hebrew Ivri ( עברי ), one of several names for the Israelite ( Jewish and Samaritan ) people ( Hebrews ). It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham 's ancestor, Eber , mentioned in Genesis 10:21 . The name is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ‎), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of

8208-703: The Bedouin . Israeli Bedouin include those who live in the north of the country, for the most part in villages and towns, and the Bedouin in the Negev , who are semi-nomadic or live in towns or unrecognized Bedouin villages . In 1999, 110,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel. As of 2013, the Negev Bedouin number 200,000–210,000. There

8379-483: The Canaanite group of languages . Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages. Hebrew was the spoken language in the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. Epigraphic evidence from this period confirms the widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore,

8550-557: The Gospel of Matthew . (See the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis or Language of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels.) The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which

8721-684: The Jewish Agency for Israel and former Speaker of the Knesset , questioned in 2007 the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and states his view that it is legitimate to live outside of Israel: "We were raised on the Zionism of Ben-Gurion, that there is only one place for Jews and that's Israel. I say no, there have always been multiple centers of Jewish life." Yerida is a common issue in political campaigns, with parties claiming their opponents' policies may drive it up or their own can reduce it. Some parties include

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8892-491: The Latin alphabet of ancient Rome . The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels , and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places in which later Hebrew spelling requires them. Numerous older tablets have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example, Proto-Sinaitic . It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs , though

9063-655: The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and the emergence of the Hasmonean kingdom , the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). The nationalist significance of Hebrew manifested in various ways throughout this period. Michael Owen Wise notes that "Beginning with the time of the Hasmonean revolt [...] Hebrew came to the fore in an expression akin to modern nationalism. A form of classical Hebrew

9234-477: The Second Aliyah , it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects of local languages, including Judaeo-Spanish (also called "Judezmo" and "Ladino"), Yiddish , Judeo-Arabic and Bukhori (Tajiki), or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian , Persian and Arabic . The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along

9405-426: The United Kingdom 2001 Census , as many as 11,892 Israelis lived in the United Kingdom in 2001. The majority live in London . In 2013 a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Israel 's headed by Court President Asher Grunis rejected an appeal requesting that state-issued identification cards state the nationality of citizens as "Israeli" rather than their religion of origin. In his opinion, Grunis stated that it

9576-435: The Zionist movement and the establishment of the State of Israel, or the proportion of emigrants compared with the number of immigrants into the country. Estimates of the extent of emigration during the period of the initial Zionist settlement in Palestine with the First Aliyah , as well as the Second Aliyah , range between approximately 40% (an estimation made by Joshua Kaniel ) of all immigrants and up to 80–90%. Although

9747-451: The former Soviet Union most of whom are Zera Yisrael (descendants of Jews) who are Russians , Ukrainians , Moldovans and Belarusians , who were eligible to immigrate due to having, or being married to somebody who has, at least one Jewish grandparent. In addition, a certain number of former Soviet citizens, primarily women of Russian and Ukrainian ethnicity, immigrated to Israel after marrying Arab citizens of Israel who went to study in

9918-399: The literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language . However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Ahad Ha'am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into

10089-507: The official language of the State of Israel . Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998, and over nine million people in 2013. After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans ). Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around

10260-484: The ostraca found near Lachish , which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE. In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between c.  1000 BCE and c.  400 CE . It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them. Sometimes

10431-441: The 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic period , the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon . Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew , the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that, through the Greeks and Etruscans , later became

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10602-454: The 1980s in the USSR , Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel ( refuseniks ). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, e.g. Yosef Begun , Ephraim Kholmyansky , Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of the USSR. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However,

10773-535: The 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Arabic (mainly by Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of

10944-495: The 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity . For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh ( לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש , lit.   ' the holy tongue ' or ' the tongue [of] holiness ' ) since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible , but as Yehudit ( transl.  ' Judean ' ) or Səpaṯ Kəna'an ( transl.  "the language of Canaan " ). Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to

11115-462: The Arab citizens of Israel are Sunni Muslim, while 9% of them are Christian , and 7.1% of them are Druze . As of 2013, the Arab population of Israel amounts to 1,658,000, about 20.7% of the population. This figure include 209,000 Arabs (14% of the Israeli Arab population) in East Jerusalem, also counted in the Palestinian statistics, although 98 percent of East Jerusalem Palestinians have either Israeli residency or Israeli citizenship. According to

11286-579: The Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud. Hebrew persevered through the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses—not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba 's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. For example,

11457-503: The British Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. After the establishment of Israel, it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language . The results of Ben-Yehuda's lexicographical work were published in a dictionary ( The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew , Ben-Yehuda Dictionary ). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by

11628-491: The Former Soviet Union such as Tatars , Armenians , and Georgians . In Israel, there are also a few thousand Circassians , living mostly in Kfar Kama (2,000) and Reyhaniye (1,000). These two villages were a part of a greater group of Circassian villages around the Golan Heights . The Circassians in Israel enjoy, like Druzes , a status aparte . Male Circassians (at their leader's request) are mandated for military service, while females are not. Non-Jewish immigrants from

11799-416: The Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return from captivity. In time, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew. By the beginning of the Common Era , Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian , Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek , but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as

11970-432: The Hebrew name of god , Yahweh, as three letters, Yod-Heh-Vav (YHV), according to the author and his team meant that the tablet is Hebrew and not Canaanite. However, practically all professional archeologists and epigraphers apart from Stripling's team claim that there is no text on this object. In July 2008, Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa that he claimed may be

12141-437: The Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac alphabet , precursor to the Arabic alphabet , also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex , a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely in Tiberias, and survives into

12312-964: The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics census in 2010, the Arab population in Israel lives in 134 Arabic towns and villages ; around 44% of them live in towns, while 48% of them in villages with the status of Local council , and around 4% live in small villages that are part of Regional council . The Arab population in Israel is located in five main areas: Galilee (54.6% of total Israeli Arabs), Triangle (23.5% of total Israeli Arabs), Golan Heights , East Jerusalem , and Northern Negev (13.5% of total Israeli Arabs). Around 8.4% of Israeli Arabs live in officially mixed Jewish-Arab cities (excluding Arab residents in East Jerusalem), in Haifa , Lod , Ramle , Jaffa - Tel Aviv , Acre , Nof HaGalil , and Ma'alot Tarshiha . The Arab citizens of Israel also include

12483-869: The Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, headed by Father Gabriel Naddaf of the Greek-Orthodox Church and Major Ihab Shlayan. The Aramean ethnic identity will now encompass all the Christian Eastern Syriac churches in Israel, including the Maronite Church , Greek Orthodox Church, Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church and Syriac Orthodox Church. There are around 1,000 Assyrians living in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem and Nazareth . Assyrians are an Aramaic -speaking, Eastern Rite Christian minority who are descended from

12654-560: The Israeli Jewish population does not include those Israeli citizens, mostly descended from immigrants from the Soviet Union , who are registered as "others", or their immediate family members. Defined as non-Jews and non-Arabs, they make up about 3.5% of Israelis (350,000), and were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Israel's official language is Hebrew , which serves as

12825-562: The Israeli consulate in Los Angeles claimed that although some 600,000-750,000 Israelis were estimated to be living in the United States, many were not native-born and were in fact the children of Israeli expatriates, as the children of Israelis born abroad are counted as Israeli citizens. That year, it was reported that yerida had hit a 40-year low, while the number of Israelis returning from abroad had increased. [REDACTED] The main motives for leaving Israel are usually connected with

12996-414: The Israeli government became alarmed over the large amount of emigration, and politicians and government entities often cited statistics claiming that hundreds of thousands of Israelis were living abroad. However, these statistics may not have been accurate; around this time, Pini Herman, a demographer, interviewed an Israeli government statistician in charge of compiling data on yordim . According to Herman,

13167-454: The Israeli population speaks Hebrew as a native language, while most of the rest speak it fluently. In 2013 Hebrew was the native language of 49% of Israelis over the age of 20, with Russian , Arabic , French , English , Yiddish and Ladino being the native tongues of most of the rest. Some 26% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 12% of Arabs reported speaking Hebrew poorly or not at all. Steps have been taken to keep Hebrew

13338-726: The Israelis who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandoned Israel for a pudding". Greece is a popular emigration destination for Israelis due to its relatively low property prices, the "Golden Visa" program (permanent residency in exchange for investing €250,000 in the Greek economy), and proximity to Israel. Between 40,000 and 60,000 Israelis have either emigrated to or established long-term residency in India , and live primarily in Goa and Maharashtra . There

13509-518: The Jerusalem-based Menachem Begin Heritage Center found that 59% of Israelis had approached or intended to approach a foreign embassy to ask for citizenship and a passport and North American countries, possibly to use as a safe haven, but actually continue living in Israel. The seeking, attainment and possession of multiple nationalities by a Jewish individual is allowed by Israeli law, whereas many other nations require

13680-547: The Jewish Agency Shmuel Lahis studied emigration to the United States. The Lahis Report estimated that there were 300,000 to 500,000 Israelis living in the United States, mainly in New York and Los Angeles. In 1982, Dov Shilansky , a Deputy Minister who was tasked with heading efforts to prevent Yerida, noted that some 300,000 Israelis had emigrated since 1948, and attributed a housing shortage and high unemployment as

13851-541: The Jewish diaspora under the title of "Returning Home on Israel's 60th." Critics question if it is right for the Immigration Absorption Ministry to focus on returning Israelis since its mandate is to aid new immigrants. The Ministry justifies this by noting the lack of any other body addressing the return of ex-residents. In 2009, a Knesset bill introduced with Benjamin Netanyahu 's support sought to give

14022-731: The Jewish population of Israel. In April 2008, the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption estimated that 700,000 Israelis were living abroad; of those 450,000 were living in the U.S. and Canada, with a further 50,000-70,000 in Britain. In 2012, a new Global Religion and Migration Database constructed by the Pew Research Center showed that there were a total of 330,000 native-born Israelis, including 230,000 Jews, living abroad, approximately 4% of Israel's native-born Jewish population. Immigrants to Israel who later left were not counted. Danny Gadot of

14193-411: The Jewish state to reside elsewhere – clearly presents an ideological and demographic problem." Among the most common reasons for emigration of Israelis from Israel are most often due to Israel's ongoing security issues, economic constraints, economic characteristics, disappointment in the Israeli government, as well as the excessive role of religion in the lives of Israelis. Many Israelis immigrated to

14364-526: The Jews to develop autonomous institutions such as the Histadrut and the Knesset. The resulting influx of Jewish immigrants, as well as the creation of many new settlements, was crucial for the functioning of these new institutions in what would, on 14 May 1948, become the State of Israel . By 1960, 25% of Israelis were Holocaust survivors. The largest cities in the country Haifa , Tel Aviv , and Jerusalem are also

14535-553: The Memorial for the eight, was established in 1971 by a group of Finnish Christian Israelis, though today most members are Israeli, and predominantly Hebrew-speaking. The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant . Ancestrally, they are descended from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity up to

14706-471: The Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek , scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Abraham Geiger and Gustaf Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic period in the 4th century BCE, and that as

14877-654: The Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical aggadah midrashes . Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as

15048-406: The Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it

15219-517: The Tribe" and that this "cold shoulder" reception happened with the full blessing of the government of the State of Israel itself. Welcome of emigrants by diaspora Jewish community is seen as a possible betrayal of the Zionist ideal—immigration to Israel—and endangerment of Israel's success in retaining and growing its Jewish population. Israel encouraged organized Jewish diaspora communities not to offer Israeli emigrant services as this might be perceived as

15390-405: The United States throughout the period of the declaration of the state of Israel and until today. Today, the descendants of these people are known as Israeli-Americans. According to the 2000 United States Census , 106,839 Americans also hold Israeli citizenship, but the number of Americans of Israeli descent is around half a million. Moscow has the largest single Israeli expatriate community in

15561-463: The Yerida phenomenon is the failure of the Zionist movement, yet some believe that it is its success. When asked about it in an interview, the poet Irit Katz said that she thinks Israeli Jews are comfortably emigrating to other countries because Israel is finally "normal" and that they are finally "allowed" to do so without hurting their country. During the first immigration waves the emigration from Israel

15732-480: The ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use. According to the Jerusalem Talmud , Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from Bet Guvrrin said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing." The later section of

15903-470: The above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as

16074-777: The ancient Mesopotamians . The old Syriac Orthodox monastery of Saint Mark lies in Jerusalem. Other than followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church, there are also followers of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church living in Israel. The African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem is a small religious community whose members believe they are descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Most of

16245-552: The average Jew, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicate a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman period , or about 200 CE. It continued on as

16416-604: The beginning of the Common Era . Population estimates made in 2007 show that of the 712 Samaritans, half live in Holon in Israel and half at Mount Gerizim in the West Bank. The Holon community holds Israeli citizenship, while the Gerizim community resides at an Israeli-controlled enclave ( Kiryat Luza ), holding dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship. The number of Vietnamese people in Israel

16587-480: The beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar , refused to speak Hebrew and spoke only Yiddish. In the Soviet Union, the use of Hebrew, along with other Jewish cultural and religious activities,

16758-459: The book of Genesis. Rabbinical scholars later interpreted this principle as yerida letsorech aliyah which translates to "to sink in order to rise" (a concept similar to the contemporary expression of hitting "rock bottom"). Jewish Law or Halakha defines certain restrictions on emigration from Israel. According to Moses Maimonides , it is only permitted to emigrate and resettle abroad in cases of severe hunger . Joseph Trani determined that it

16929-477: The citizens of the modern State of Israel, regardless of them being Jewish, Arabs, or of any other ethnicity. The modern State of Israel revived an old name known from the Hebrew Bible and from historical sources, that of the Iron Age Kingdom of Israel. The Bible differentiates between a period of tribal rule among the "children of Israel"; a Kingdom of Israel uniting all twelve biblical Israelite tribes, with

17100-585: The common capital known as the City of David (Jerusalem); and a period in which the northern tribes split away to form an independent Kingdom of Israel , while the southern tribes became part of the Kingdom of Judah . Archaeological research only partially agrees with the biblical narrative. According to the biblical account, the United Monarchy was formed when there was a large popular expression in favour of introducing

17271-751: The community celebrates its members moving to Israel, there is reluctance to acknowledge or honor those who leave Israel to settle in Teaneck. Some argue that yerida contradicts the values they wish to instill in their children and that having yordim (emigrants) in leadership positions in synagogues and schools is at odds with the community's religious Zionist goals. Diaspora Jewish communities perceive Israeli emigrants as less engaged with local Jewish organizations and not contributing much financially. Many work in low-status jobs uncommon among local Jews. Illustratively, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir recalled an encounter with an Israeli waiter in New York, highlighting

17442-596: The composition of 1 Maccabees in archaizing Hebrew, Hasmonean coinage under John Hyrcanus (134-104 BCE), and coins from both the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt featuring exclusively Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew script inscriptions. This deliberate use of Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew script in official contexts, despite limited literacy, served as a symbol of Jewish nationalism and political independence. The Christian New Testament contains some Semitic place names and quotes. The language of such Semitic glosses (and in general

17613-519: The conflict is less about pudding prices but about the now shattered taboo of Yerida, emigrating from Israel. The fact that Germany was chosen as the destination struck a raw nerve across the social and political spectrum, considering Israel's founding in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust , its large population of Holocaust survivors, and the many citizens who still refuse to buy products made in Germany. Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir stated, "I pity

17784-410: The content of Hebrew inscriptions suggests that the written texts closely mirror the spoken language of that time. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as

17955-514: The country in the following years, primarily to Canada , Australia , and South America . A small number went to the United States , and it was thought that the US would be the primary destination had immigration restrictions set out by the Immigration Act of 1924 not still been in place. By 1953, the wave of immigration had leveled off, and emigration was increasing. Initially, emigration from Israel

18126-694: The cultural heritage of many immigrant groups, is popular. There is also flourishing modern dance. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2014, 75% of Israelis were Jewish by religion (adherents of Judaism ), 17.5% were Muslims , 2% Christian , 1.6% Druze and the remaining 3.9% (including immigrants) were not classified by religion. Roughly 12% of Israeli Jews defined as haredim (ultra-orthodox religious); an additional 9% are "religious"; 35% consider themselves "traditionalists" (not strictly adhering to Jewish religious law ); and 43% are "secular" (termed " hiloni "). Among

18297-436: The data showed that since 1948, fewer than 400,000 Israelis had moved abroad and never returned. When asked how other government entities regularly claimed much higher figures, the statistician said that his bureau had never been actually consulted. In November 2003, the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption estimated that 750,000 Israelis were living abroad, primarily in the United States and Canada —about 12.5 percent of

18468-563: The dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;

18639-423: The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating from around 3,000 years ago. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said that the inscription was "proto-Canaanite" but cautioned that "[t]he differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear", and suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far. The Gezer calendar also dates back to

18810-513: The earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language and often introduced calques from Yiddish and phono-semantic matchings of international words. Despite using Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation as its primary basis, modern Israeli Hebrew has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following: The vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew is much larger than that of earlier periods. According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann : The number of attested Biblical Hebrew words

18981-732: The early 1960s, moved to Liberia for a few years, and then immigrated to Israel. There are about 4,000–10,000 Armenian citizens of Israel (not including Armenian Jews). They live mostly in Jerusalem, including the Armenian Quarter , but also in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jaffa. Their religious activities center around the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem as well as churches in Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa. Although Armenians of Old Jerusalem have Israeli identity cards, they are officially holders of Jordanian passports. A number of immigrants also belong to various non-Slavic ethnic groups from

19152-518: The early 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah , destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the east in Babylon . During the Babylonian captivity , many Israelites learned Aramaic, the closely related Semitic language of their captors. Thus, for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. After Cyrus

19323-415: The emigrants' desire for improved living standards, or to search for work opportunities and professional advancement, for higher education. From the beginning of the 1980s, the emigration phenomenon in Israel gained momentum because of the social, financial, cultural, and political changes that occurred in the country. In Berlin for instance the main reasons for Israeli migration to the city were found to be

19494-466: The fact that it has become commonplace for Israelis to move abroad, either permanently or for a stint, makes it contradictory for their families to look down on Diaspora Jews. Haifa University sociologist Oz Almog said in a 2009 interview: "Ask Israelis now what they think about Jews coming from countries where they aren't persecuted, like the U.S. and Britain, to live in Israel, and they'll say, 'Those who do are nuts.'" Avraham Burg , former Chairman of

19665-584: The fact that they did not face the same difficulties as new immigrants who decided to leave after failing to integrate . In a 2008 interview, Ehud Barak , the Israeli defense minister and former prime minister said that "Jews know that they can land on their feet in any corner of the world. The real test for us is to make Israel such an attractive place—cutting edge in science, education, culture, quality of life—that even American Jewish young people want to come here. If we cannot do this, even those who were born here will consciously decide to go to other places. This

19836-599: The figure at 60,000. Of them, about 26,000 were found to live in the Vancouver Metropolitan Area . Overall, Israeli expatriates were estimated to make up 14% of Canadian Jewry. Between 8,000 and 15,000 Israeli expatriates live in Germany . Practically all of them reside in Berlin . Both the Jewish and Israeli community in Germany are growing. Named Olim L'Berlin ( Hebrew : עולים לברלין , progress towards Berlin) 2014

20007-703: The first Middle East printing press, in Safed (modern Israel), produced a small number of books in Hebrew in 1577, which were then sold to the nearby Jewish world. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could converse in Latin. For example, Rabbi Avraham Danzig wrote

20178-477: The first century CE. Two Jewish revolts, the second one ending in 135 CE, led to the large-scale decimation of the Jewish population in Judea and the end of any type of Jewish territorial self-rule in the southern Levant for many centuries to come. Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 until it was taken by British forces in 1918. The British establishment of colonial political boundaries allowed

20349-461: The following: dissatisfactions with life in Israel, a realization of personal potential career and academic wise, following the relocation of a spouse / having a German spouse, and the relatively low cost of living in Berlin integrated with the cultural value and diversity the city has to offer. A study conducted by Omer Moav and Arik Gold, analyzing Israelis leaving the country from 1995-2005. They found

20520-554: The former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. The total number of those primarily of Slavic ancestry among Israeli citizens is around 300,000. Although most Finns in Israel are either Finnish Jews or their descendants, a small number of Finnish Christians moved to Israel in the 1940s before the independence of the state and have since gained citizenship. For the most part the original Finnish settlers intermarried with other Israeli communities, and therefore remain very small in number. A moshav near Jerusalem named " Yad HaShmona ", meaning

20691-415: The general Israeli population. Almost half of Israeli teens aged 14–18 years old expressed a desire to live outside of Israel in 2007. 68 percent of teens believed that Israel's general situation is "not good." Common Israeli attitudes toward migration to Israel and Jews living in the Diaspora may have shifted polarities in terms of Zionism. In 2009, Hebrew University sociologist Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi said

20862-406: The generic term for these passages is Baraitot . The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained

21033-475: The historically large Mizrahi population and decades of ethnic intermixing, over 50% of Israel's current Jewish population is of at least partial Mizrahi descent. The CBS traces the paternal country of origin of Israeli Jews as of 2010 is as follows. A large part of Mandate -period Arab Palestinians remained within Israel's borders following the 1948 exodus and are the largest group of Arabic-speaking and culturally Arab citizens of Israel. The vast majority of

21204-456: The immigrants move to a third country, almost always in the West , and some of them return to the country of their origin, a phenomenon which increases when the conditions in the country of origin improve, as occurred in the former USSR in the first decade of the 21st century. Since the founding of the State of Israel, polls have shown that those leaving the country were on average more educated than

21375-456: The language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which is derived from the name of the alphabet used , in contrast to Ivrit , meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt , which

21546-522: The language of government and is spoken by the majority of the population. Arabic is spoken by the Arab minority and by some members of the Mizrahi Jewish community. English is studied in school and is spoken by the majority of the population as a second language. Other languages spoken in Israel include Russian, Yiddish , Spanish, Ladino , Amharic , Armenian, Romanian, and French. In recent decades, between 650,000 and 1,300,000 Israelis have emigrated,

21717-458: The language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is often referred to as "Hebrew" in the text, although this term is often re-interpreted as referring to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, these glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well. It has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Koine Greek, lay behind the composition of

21888-408: The language. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora " shtetl " lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making

22059-546: The major cultural centers, known for art museums, and many towns and kibbutzim have smaller high-quality museums. Israeli music is very versatile and combines elements of both western and eastern, religious and secular music. It tends to be very eclectic and contains a wide variety of influences from the Diaspora and more modern cultural importation: Hassidic songs, Asian and Arab pop, especially by Yemenite singers, and Israeli hip hop or heavy metal . Folk dancing, which draws upon

22230-720: The newly declared State of Israel . Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today. In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew , Modern Israeli Hebrew , Modern Hebrew , New Hebrew , Israeli Standard Hebrew , Standard Hebrew and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits some features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic. The literary and narrative use of Hebrew

22401-434: The ones who remained in Israel. This phenomenon is even more extreme amongst new immigrants who leave Israel than amongst native-born Israelis who leave Israel. Therefore, the emigration from Israel has occasionally been referred to as a brain drain . An OECD estimate put the highly educated emigrant rate at 5.3 per thousand highly educated Israelis, actually placing Israel in the lower third compared to OECD countries where

22572-663: The ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict , academic or professional ambitions, and disillusionment with Israeli society. Emigrants from Israel are known as yordim ("those who go down [from Israel]"). Immigrants to Israel are known as olim ("those who go up [to Israel]"). The use of the Hebrew word "Yored" (which means "descending") is a modern renewal of a term taken from the Torah : " אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלו ‎" ("I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again" Genesis 46:4), " ויהי רעב בארץ; וירד אברם מצרימה לגור שם כי-כבד הרעב בארץ ‎" ("Now there

22743-518: The outflow of foreign currency, tickets could only be purchased with money sent from abroad. The general need for an exit visa was finally abolished in 1961 after several court cases and Knesset decisions. Other restrictions were eased after the Six-Day War, but still many administrative hurdles were put in front of those wishing to leave. In 1980 deputy Prime Minister Simha Erlich and the Director of

22914-627: The over 5,000 members live in Dimona, Israel although there are additional, smaller, groups in Arad , Mitzpe Ramon , and the Tiberias area. At least some of them consider themselves to be Jewish, but Israeli authorities do not accept them as such, nor are their religious practices consistent with "mainstream Jewish tradition." The group, which consists of African Americans and their descendants, originated in Chicago in

23085-514: The overall average was 14 per thousand highly educated emigrants. Israel, with its well developed technical and educational infrastructure and larger base of highly educated citizens, is retaining a greater percentage of its highly educated persons than developed countries such as Belgium , the Netherlands , Finland , Denmark and New Zealand . The migration of Israeli Jews was often thought to be unidirectional and described as yerida , but there

23256-537: The period of the declaration of the state of Israel and until today. Today, the descendants of these people are known as Israeli-Canadians. According to the Canada 2006 Census as many as 21,320 Israelis lived in Canada in 2006. Many Israelis immigrated to the United Kingdom throughout and since the period of the declaration of the state of Israel . Today, the descendants of these people are known as Israeli-British. According to

23427-525: The phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite , and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from that of Egyptian. One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone , written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam inscription , found near Jerusalem , is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include

23598-440: The political situation and security threats in Israel are not among the main factors in emigration. Emigration is also common amongst new immigrants who failed to successfully integrate into Israeli society especially if they were unable to master the Hebrew language, failed to integrate into the labor market, or who already made one major residence change in their lives and therefore found an additional change easier to make. Some of

23769-523: The precise number is unknown, it is known that many of the European Jewish immigrants during this period gave up after a few months and left, often suffering from hunger and disease. In the latter part of the Fourth Aliyah , during 1926–1928, the mandatory authorities recorded 17,972 Jewish immigrants, and the Jewish Agency counted about 1,100 more who were not registered with the authorities. During

23940-582: The present day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain , important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic . Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj , Jonah ibn Janah , Abraham ibn Ezra and later (in Provence ), David Kimhi . A great deal of poetry

24111-620: The primary language of use, and to prevent large-scale incorporation of English words into the Hebrew vocabulary. The Academy of the Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem currently invents about 2,000 new Hebrew words each year for modern words by finding an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning, as an alternative to incorporating more English words into Hebrew vocabulary. The Haifa municipality has banned officials from using English words in official documents, and

24282-406: The primary reasons for Israeli emigration at the time. Yerida skyrocketed in the mid-1980s, due to a combination of the effects of the 1982 Lebanon War , exposure of Israeli tourists to other cultures and new opportunities in other Western countries, and an economic crisis brought on by the 1983 bank stock crisis . In 1984 and 1985, more Jews emigrated from than immigrated to Israel. At the time,

24453-657: The rest of the Middle East; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. William Schniedewind argues that after waning in the Persian period, the religious importance of Hebrew grew in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and cites epigraphical evidence that Hebrew survived as a vernacular language – though both its grammar and its writing system had been substantially influenced by Aramaic. According to another summary, Greek

24624-450: The right to vote to Israelis abroad. The bill did not pass. In 2014, following the Protective Edge Gaza War a song, "Berlin", dealing with emigration from Israel by the Israeli band Shmemel gained notice as a protest song whose lyrics and video content highlight the alternatives to living in Israel. In 2023, Israelis and media started using "relocation" instead of "Yerida", in response to Prime Minister Netanyahu's return to power with

24795-598: The same period, the authorities recorded 14,607 Jewish emigrants. Overall, it is estimated that about 60,000 Jews emigrated from Mandatory Palestine between 1923 and 1948, and that the total number of Jews who emigrated from the start of the Zionist project to the establishment of the state was around 90,000. After Israel was established in 1948, the country experienced a wave of mass immigration lasting from 1948 to 1951, primarily from post-Holocaust Europe and Arab and Muslim countries, absorbing 688,000 immigrants during this period. However, some 10% of these immigrants would leave

24966-563: The second or third generation of their family in the country, and the rest are Jewish immigrants . Of the Jewish immigrants, 20.5% were from Europe and the Americas, and 9.2% were from Asia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries . Nearly half of all Israeli Jews are descended from immigrants from the European Jewish diaspora. Approximately the same number are descended from immigrants from Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia. Over 200,000 are of Ethiopian and Indian-Jewish descent. The official Israel Central Bureau of Statistics estimate of

25137-855: The seculars, 53% believe in God. However, 78% of all Israelis (and virtually all Israeli Jews) participate in a Passover seder. Unlike North American Jews, Israelis tend not to align themselves with a movement of Judaism (such as Reform Judaism or Conservative Judaism ) but instead tend to define their religious affiliation by degree of their religious practice. Israeli religious life, unlike much of North American Jewish life, does not solely revolve around synagogues or religious community centers. Among Arab Israelis , 82.6% were Muslim (including Ahmadis ), 8.8% were Christian and 8.4% were Druze . Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית ‎, ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ‎ ʿÎbrit )

25308-426: The southern villages of Judea." In other words, "in terms of dialect geography, at the time of the tannaim Palestine could be divided into the Aramaic-speaking regions of Galilee and Samaria and a smaller area, Judaea, in which Rabbinic Hebrew was used among the descendants of returning exiles." In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among

25479-413: The spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, a policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in

25650-606: The start of this campaign, the number of Israelis returning home has doubled. Return reached a peak of 11,000 in 2010. From 2010 to October 2012, a record 22,470 Israelis returned, including 4,837 academics and researchers, 2,720 technical professionals, and 681 business managers. Israel has granted the legal status of Toshav Hozer ( תושב חוזר toshav hozer , "returning resident") to Israeli citizens having resided abroad for at least two years (1.5 years for students); during his/her time abroad, has not visited Israel for 120 days or more per year (365 days); has not used his/her rights as

25821-414: The term "Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants of the land of Israel and Judah , perhaps from the perspective of Mesopotamia , Phoenicia or Transjordan (with the river referred to being perhaps the Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare

25992-461: The type of occupations some emigrants take up abroad. About 7,000 Israelis live in Australia . They are heavily concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne . The 2006 Canadian quinquennial census counted 26,215 persons who reported Israeli citizenship, of whom two-thirds (67 percent) lived in the Ontario region. A 2009 study by the University of British Columbia concluded that there were 45,000 Israelis living in Canada, while other estimates put

26163-580: The upper class of Jerusalem , while Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE, Judaeans were forced to disperse. Many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north. Many scholars have pointed out that Hebrew continued to be used alongside Aramaic during Second Temple times, not only for religious purposes but also for nationalistic reasons, especially during revolts such as

26334-455: The word Habiru or cognate Assyrian ebru , of identical meaning. One of the earliest references to the language's name as " Ivrit " is found in the prologue to the Book of Sirach , from the 2nd century BCE. The Hebrew Bible does not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language of the Hebrew people; its later historiography, in the Book of Kings , refers to it as יְהוּדִית Yehudit " Judahite (language)". Hebrew belongs to

26505-424: The world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non- first language , it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations , and by theologians in Christian seminaries . The modern English word "Hebrew" is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from

26676-407: The world, with 80,000 Israeli citizens living in the city as of 2014, almost all of them native Russian-speakers. Many Israeli cultural events are hosted for the community, and many live part of the year in Israel. (To cater to the Israeli community, Israeli cultural centres are located in Moscow , Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg .) Many Israelis immigrated to Canada throughout

26847-421: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language . The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of

27018-425: Was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there because the famine was severe." Genesis 12:10), and from the Mishnah : " הכל מעלין לארץ ישראל ואין הכל מוציאין ‎", and from the Talmud " ארץ ישראל גבוה מכל הארצות ‎" (The Land of Israel is higher than all the [other] lands). In the Bible, the first yored was Abraham, followed later by Joseph and Jacob, who "went down" to Egypt in

27189-425: Was a great cause for pessimism in regards to the success of the Zionist enterprise. In a 1976 interview, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin identified the Israeli emigrants as "fall-outs of weaklings" (נפולת של נמושות). Nowadays there is much less antagonism among Israelis regarding emigrants. The main problem for Israeli society in the past was the idea that people born in Israel could choose to emigrate, despite

27360-406: Was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea . Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy , rabbinic literature , intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature . The first dated book printed in Hebrew

27531-448: Was composed largely of immigrants who were unsatisfied with life there, but in the mid-1970s the number of native Israelis leaving the country grew. From 1948 until 1961, Israeli citizens required an exit visa as well as a passport to travel overseas even temporarily. Initially the intention was to prevent the departure of Jews who ought to be fighting, but also due to a perception that those leaving harmed national solidarity. To prevent

27702-415: Was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (586 BCE), inherited by the Achaemenid Empire , conquered by Alexander the Great (332 BCE), ruled by the resulting Hellenistic empires, from which it regained authonomy and eventually independence under the Hasmoneans , conquered by the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, ruled by the client kings of the Herodian dynasty , and finally transformed into a Roman province during

27873-498: Was largely defined by communities of the Jewish diaspora who had made aliyah to British Palestine from Europe , Western Asia , and North Africa in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Later Jewish immigration from Ethiopia , the states of the former Soviet Union , and the Americas introduced new cultural elements to Israeli society and have had a profound impact on modern Israeli culture. Since Israel's independence in 1948, Israelis and people of Israeli descent have had

28044-475: Was not within the court's purview to determine new categories of ethnicity or nationhood. The court's decision responded to a petition by Uzzi Ornan, who refused to be identified as Jewish in 1948 at the foundation of the state of Israel, claiming instead that he was "Hebrew." This was permitted by Israeli authorities at the time. However, by 2000, Ornan wanted to register his nationality as "Israeli". The Interior Ministry refused to allow this, prompting Ornan to file

28215-438: Was now a more significant written language than Aramaic within Judaea." This nationalist aspect was further emphasized during periods of conflict, as Hannah Cotton observing in her analysis of legal documents during the Jewish revolts against Rome that "Hebrew became the symbol of Jewish nationalism, of the independent Jewish State." The nationalist use of Hebrew is evidenced in several historical documents and artefacts, including

28386-406: Was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio ( Calabria , Italy) in 1475. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of a modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine , and subsequently

28557-470: Was revived beginning with the Haskalah movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Ha-Me'assef (The Gatherer), was published by maskilim in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad ) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. Hamagid , founded in Ełk in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Hayim Nahman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky ; there were also novels written in

28728-479: Was suppressed. Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the People's Commissariat for Education as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself did not cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes ). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being

28899-437: Was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. There was also a geographic pattern: according to Bernard Spolsky , by the beginning of the Common Era, " Judeo-Aramaic was mainly used in Galilee in the north, Greek was concentrated in the former colonies and around governmental centers, and Hebrew monolingualism continued mainly in

29070-408: Was to a certain extent a pidgin . Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , owing to the ideology of the national revival ( שיבת ציון , Shivat Tziyon , later Zionism ), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of

29241-570: Was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Judah ha-Levi , Moses ibn Ezra and Abraham ibn Ezra , in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to

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