139-520: Meretz ( Hebrew : מֶרֶצ , lit. 'Vigour', Arabic : ميرتس ) was a left-wing political party in Israel . The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz , Mapam and Shinui , and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It had no seats in the Knesset following its failure to pass the electoral threshold in the 2022 elections , the only time it failed to win seats in
278-674: 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
417-583: A breakthrough, and the two proposals were eventually passed by the Knesset as Basic Laws. In 1977, he was elected for the first time to the 9th Knesset and served continuously until 2002. During his tenure as a member of the Knesset, he served as the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (in the 15th Knesset ), the chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee (in the 14th Knesset ),
556-635: A building contractor and founder of the "Rubinstein Group", and Rachel, who immigrated from Poland to Israel in the early 1920s. His family opposed the Labor Movement , and in his youth, he supported the Irgun . Rubinstein was active in public life from a young age, and in the early 1950s, he was a member of the Volunteers' Row, a public organization aimed at fighting corruption and helping new immigrants. He studied at
695-583: 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
834-649: 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
973-562: 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
1112-432: A fifth seat, negating the premise for Gal-On's earlier announcement, and she announced that she would continue as party leader, saying: "Meretz received a fifth seat from young supporters, from Israeli soldiers, who raised the party's rate of support. That allowed Meretz to maintain its strength in terms of the number of voters – some 170,000 – compared with the last election. Under the circumstances, and against all odds, that
1251-579: 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
1390-463: 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
1529-532: 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
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#17328766627091668-501: A portfolio that was later renamed Minister of Science and the Arts. Amnon Rubinstein became Minister of Energy and Infrastructure and Minister of Science and Technology, and later Minister of Education, Culture and Sport , whilst Yossi Sarid was named Minister of the Environment and Yair Tzaban was named Minister of Immigrant Absorption . After the 1996 elections , in which Meretz lost
1807-404: A quarter of its seats, Aloni lost an internal leadership election to Yossi Sarid and retired, and the three parties decided to officially merge into a single entity by 1997. Although Shinui leader Amnon Rubinstein supported the merger, most Shinui members rejected it; once the merger became effective, part of Shinui (under the leadership of Rubinstein) broke away to participate in the merger, while
1946-535: 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
2085-500: A special Prime Ministerial election in 2001 , Meretz left the government. On 22 October 2002, Meretz MK Uzi Even made history by becoming the first openly gay Member of Knesset, after Amnon Rubinstein retired. This created a vacancy and Even was next on the Meretz list. His term lasted less than three months, however, as the Knesset was dissolved in January 2003. Even's entry to the Knesset
2224-652: 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
2363-642: A student. The two met at Kibbutz Afikim , where he was sent for fortification work before the Suez Crisis . Later, his wife also became a lawyer. They had a son and a daughter. Rubinstein returned to public activism after the Yom Kippur War , and in March 1974, he was one of the founders of the Shinui Party as part of the protest movements that emerged during this period. Later, he joined with Yigael Yadin to form
2502-498: A system in which some core subjects did not require an external exam. As a result, between the 1994 and 1996 school years, the matriculation eligibility rate increased by over 5% to approximately 45% of each cohort. The second reform initiated by Rubinstein was the establishment of academic colleges. These included both state-funded colleges, such as the Tel Aviv–Yafo Academic College, and privately funded ones, like
2641-468: 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
2780-549: 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
2919-483: A visiting professor at academic institutions abroad, including Stanford University and Columbia University . Rubinstein had a media career as a columnist . In the 1960s, he wrote articles in the press against what he called religious coercion and the concessions made to the religious parties. He gained fame as a popular columnist and interviewee. From 1969 to 1972, he hosted a debate program on Israel Educational Television called "Boomerang". From 1964 until 2004, he
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#17328766627093058-511: 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
3197-620: 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
3336-464: Is a success." Tamar Zandberg became the leader of Meretz in 2018 . In February 2019, Meretz held its first-ever open primary contest. Eighty-six percent of party members cast votes. Ilan Gilon won first place; he will be placed second on the party's Knesset slate, behind party leader Tamar Zandberg. Michal Rozin came in second place, followed by Issawi Frej and Ali Salalha. In the April 2019 elections ,
3475-514: 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
3614-576: 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. Amnon Rubinstein Amnon Rubinstein ( Hebrew : אמנון רובינשטיין , 5 September 1931 – 18 January 2024)
3753-512: Is survived by a son and a daughter. In 2006, Rubinstein won the Israel Prize , for law. The Israel Prize award committee provided the following endorsement for its decision: "[Amnon Rubinstein is] the founding father of Israeli constitutional law… In the legal and public arena in Israel, there are few who can equal Prof. Amnon Rubinstein’s contribution to the State of Israel…" In 2003, he received
3892-560: 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
4031-405: 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
4170-536: 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
4309-630: 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
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4448-581: The 1999 Knesset election . The 1999 elections saw the party regain its former strength, picking up 10 seats, including the first-ever female Israeli Arab MK , Hussniya Jabara , while Shinui (now effectively led by TV celebrity journalist Tommy Lapid , although Poraz remained its formal leader) won six seats. Meretz was invited into Ehud Barak 's coalition, with Sarid becoming Education Minister, Ran Cohen Minister of Industry and Trade and Haim Oron Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development . However, after Likud leader Ariel Sharon defeated Barak in
4587-448: The 2004 leadership election , the party again expanded its leadership election electorate, opening the leadership vote up to the party's general membership. More than 15,000 party members participated in this leadership election. The 2012 leadership election saw a return to limiting the elecotrate to party convention delegates. In the 2018 leadership election , voting was re-opened to the party's general membership, before being closed for
4726-537: The 2019 leadership election , and later re-opened in 2022 . Several left-wing Zionist organizations that shared many of the ideas of Meretz are affiliated with the Israel-based World Union of Meretz, which is an umbrella group for organizations in Jewish communities around the world that were linked to the Meretz party. The WUM is a faction within the World Zionist Organization and is part of
4865-407: The 2022 elections under the leadership of returning chairwoman Zehava Galon , missing the electoral threshold by 3,800 votes, marking the first time that the party did not retain Knesset seats in an election. The party's local candidates reportedly struggled financially since the 2022 election, owing to the party's lack of representation in the Knesset. Meretz was positioned on the left-wing on
5004-705: 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
5143-534: 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,
5282-565: The Democratic Movement for Change (Dash) . The main agenda of the party focused on electoral reform, advocating for regional elections, combating corruption, ensuring equal burden-sharing, establishing a constitution , and separation of religion and state . Dash won 15 seats in the 1977 elections, but its hope of becoming a kingmaker was thwarted as Menachem Begin succeeded in forming a government without Dash. A few months later, Dash joined Begin’s government, but Rubinstein refused to enter
5421-557: 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
5560-648: The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya . This reform made higher education accessible to disadvantaged populations. In 2016, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported 89,944 students with Bachelor's degrees from academic colleges. According to reports from the Council for Higher Education, 97,580 students are currently enrolled in academic colleges, constituting 66% of all students in Israel. After retiring from politics, in addition to his criticism of
5699-491: 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
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5838-655: 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
5977-634: The March 2021 elections , Meretz joined a coalition government alongside Yesh Atid , Blue and White , Yamina , the Labor Party, Yisrael Beiteinu , New Hope and the United Arab List . Three Meretz MKs became ministers, with Horowitz becoming Minister of Health, Zandberg Minister of Environmental Protection and Issawi Frej Minister of Regional Cooperation. This is the first time Meretz has returned to government since 2000. The party did not win any seats in
6116-550: The Psychometric Entrance Test , stating that if such a test had existed during his time, he would not have been able to study law. As Minister of Education, Rubinstein initiated two reforms. The first dealt with the structure of matriculation exams. Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education increased the rate of students successfully passing matriculation exams. This was achieved, among other measures, by introducing
6255-745: The Ratz and Mapam parties to form Meretz , a joint list of parties advocating for peace and socioeconomic reform. Rubinstein significantly advanced the Israeli Constitution Project. During the 12th Knesset, he initiated the proposal for the Basic Law on Human Rights and suggested splitting it into four separate proposals, including the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation . This division led to
6394-525: 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
6533-526: The Zionist General Council . Hashomer Hatzair , a progressive Zionist youth movement with branches in many countries, was informally associated with Meretz; it had previously been affiliated with Mapam . American Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman , whose sister Susan moved from the US to Israel and is a Reform rabbi there, asked Israeli voters to choose Meretz in the 2015 election . In October 2024,
6672-455: 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
6811-609: 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
6950-537: 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
7089-592: 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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#17328766627097228-547: 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,
7367-535: 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
7506-495: 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
7645-579: 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,
7784-503: 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
7923-451: The Geula Commercial High School in Tel Aviv and later at a high school in Baltimore , United States . In the IDF , he served as an officer in the Artillery Corps. He later retrained and served in the anti-aircraft unit, continuing his service there in the reserves. After his military service, Rubinstein pursued studies in law , economics, and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . He did his legal internship at
8062-416: 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
8201-432: 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
8340-437: 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
8479-454: 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
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#17328766627098618-441: The Israeli right, Rubinstein became a sharp critic of the Israeli left, which he claimed had become increasingly radical in an effort to appease the Palestinians . Following the signing of the Geneva Initiative by Meretz leader Yossi Beilin , Rubinstein left Meretz, citing his opposition to the compromise on the Right of Return , which was included in the agreement. In the legal controversy that erupted in Israel in 2007 over
8757-533: The Knesset and continued serving as an MK, before stepping down before the 2006 elections . In December 2003, Meretz was disbanded, to merge with Yossi Beilin 's non-parliamentary Shahar ( שח"ר ) movement. The original name suggested for the new party was Ya'ad ( יעד , Goal ), but was not used because it sounded like the Russian word for poison ("yad"), and it was feared that it might alienate Israel's one million Russian-speaking voters (although there had been two parties previously in Israel using
8896-470: The Knesset elections indicated that the party representation would be reduced, Zehava Galon announced that she would resign as chairperson of Meretz as soon as a successor was chosen, and from the Knesset, in order to open a place for Tamar Zandberg , the party's fifth place-candidate who appeared to have lost her seat. Zandberg, Ilan Gilon , and others urged Gal-On to reconsider her decision. However, once absentee and soldier ballots were counted, Meretz gained
9035-451: The Knesset. Meretz was a social-democratic and secular party emphasising a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict , social justice, human rights (especially for religious, ethnic and sexual minorities), religious freedom and environmentalism. The party was a member of the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International , and was an observer member of the Party of European Socialists . The party's position on Zionism
9174-403: The Labor Party for the upcoming 2015 legislative election , the latter set to contest the election as the Zionist Union . On 19 January 2015, Meretz held its primaries at a meeting of its 1,000-member central committee in the Tel Aviv Convention Center : Zehava Galon was re-elected party leader, whilst MK Nitzan Horowitz chose not to stand for re-election. In 2015 , as preliminary results of
9313-417: 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
9452-494: The State Attorney's Office and also with attorney Chaim Zadok , who later became the Minister of Justice. He was licensed as a lawyer in 1961. He received his Ph.D. in law from the London School of Economics in 1960. His doctoral dissertation, titled "Void and Voidable Actions in Administrative Law", was published as a book by Oxford University Press . At the age of 25, during his studies, he married Roni (granddaughter of Jacob and Perla Shlush, Founders of Tel Aviv), also
9591-449: 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
9730-406: 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
9869-541: The US affiliate of the World Union of Meretz, Partners for Progressive Israel , was the first Zionist group in the United States to call on the United States government to suspend its sale of offensive arms to Israel, calling on the American government to redirect its aid to Israel to peacebuilding efforts. Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית , ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ʿÎbrit )
10008-816: The World Zionist Union made up of the Labor Zionist Movement , Arzenu , and the World Union of Meretz, and sends delegates to the World Zionist Congress . WUM affiliates include the London-based Meretz UK, France's Cercle Bernard Lazare and the USA's Partners for Progressive Israel . The World Union of Meretz has representation in other organizations, including the Jewish National Fund and
10147-480: 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
10286-470: 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
10425-567: The agreement, Meretz and Labor continue as separate corporate and budgetary entities, and their factions in the Histadrut , municipal councils and other bodies outside the Knesset will not be unified at this stage but will cooperate. Meretz was formed prior to the 1992 Israeli legislative election by an alliance of three left-wing political parties, Ratz , Mapam and Shinui , and was initially led by Ratz's chairwoman and long-time Knesset member Shulamit Aloni . The name "Meretz" ( מרצ )
10564-552: 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
10703-535: 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,
10842-603: The chairman of the State Control Committee (in the 15th Knesset), and also as a member of the Judicial Selection Committee. In 1999, in what is considered one of the embarrassing events in Knesset history, following a false message received (from Zalman Shoshi) by Avraham Burg , the Speaker of the Knesset , that he had died, the Knesset members observed a moment of silence in memory of Rubinstein while he
10981-410: The coalition because, in his view, a significant portion of Dash's platform was not reflected in the coalition agreement. On September 14, 1978, Dash split, and Rubinstein headed the faction called the "Movement for Change and Initiative," which later became "Shinui – Center Party." The Shinui faction was elected to the 10th Knesset , the 11th Knesset , and the 12th Knesset . In 1992, Shinui merged with
11120-596: 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
11259-462: 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
11398-563: 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;
11537-423: 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
11676-513: 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
11815-518: 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
11954-703: 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
12093-406: 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
12232-491: The initiatives proposed by Justice Minister , Daniel Friedmann , to change the judicial system, Rubinstein sided with Friedmann on several issues and was one of the initiators of a petition supporting him. He explained his stance: "My aim was to dispel the impression that the professors in the universities had created, as if the entire academia opposed Friedmann's initiatives. Every matter should be examined on its own merit, not through personal attacks." In 1963, Rubinstein
12371-538: The internal elections held on 18 March 2008 with 54.5% of the vote, defeating Ran Cohen (27.1%) and Zehava Galon (18.1%) to become Meretz's new chairman. On 22 December 2008, Meretz finalized its merger with Hatnua HaHadasha ("The New Movement") for the 2009 Israeli elections . The joint Meretz–Hatnua HaHadasha list ended up winning only three seats in the election. This electoral loss was largely attributed to traditionally left-wing voters choosing to strategically vote for Kadima , in an effort to get Tzipi Livni to head
12510-546: The investigation and prosecution of public figures in Israel, arguing that enforcement bodies in Israel hold excessive power over elected officials, which is unrestrained. He pointed to several cases where such use of power may have occurred. In 2020, Rubinstein was interviewed for "The Future Archive", a documentation project of the founding generation of intellectuals who left a significant mark on Israeli culture. Rubinstein resided in Tel Aviv . He died on January 18, 2024. He
12649-456: 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
12788-458: 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
12927-464: 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
13066-683: The left, the Human in the centre". Nevertheless, it failed to stop the party's decline, as they won just five seats. In 2007, Tzvia Greenfield , sixth on the party list, became the first-ever female ultra-Orthodox Knesset member, following Yossi Beilin's decision to retire from politics. In March 2008, internal elections for the chairman of the party were held. At an early stage, Yossi Beilin, Zehava Galon and Ran Cohen announced their bids. After Haim Oron announced his bid in December 2007, Beilin withdrew his bid and announced his support for him. Oron went on to win
13205-450: The name Yachad was not recognisable to the Israeli public and that they preferred the old name Meretz . The chairman Beilin opposed the motion to revert the name to Meretz and a compromise between the old and new names, Meretz-Yachad , was agreed upon. However, in the 2006 election campaign, the party dropped the Yachad part of its name, running as just Meretz , under the slogan "Meretz on
13344-464: The name – Ya'ad and Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement , the latter ironically a forerunner of Meretz, they both existed before large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union). Instead, the name Yachad (Hebrew: יח"ד) was chosen. As well as meaning "Together", it is also a Hebrew acronym for Social-Democratic Israel (Hebrew: ישראל חברתית דמוקרטית , Yisrael Hevratit Demokratit ). The new party
13483-457: The new party. It has suffered from declining popular interest in left-wing peace movements, and only 20,000 people are now registered members of the party, half the number who were before the 1999 party primaries. In March 2004, Yossi Beilin was elected party leader, defeating Ran Cohen, and started a two-year term as the first chairman of Yachad. In July 2005, the party decided to change its name to Meretz-Yachad, because opinion polls revealed that
13622-720: 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
13761-500: The next government, instead of Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud . Following the party's failure in the 2009 legislative elections, some of the party members called for the resignation of the party chairman Haim Oron and to give way for Zehava Galon. Haim Oron indeed left the Knesset on 23 March 2011 and later left the chairmanship of the party. As a result, MKs Zehava Galon , Ilan Gilon , and youth activist Ori Ophir began campaigning to win
13900-410: The party mainstream elected Avraham Poraz as the new party leader and re-established Shinui as an independent movement. Later in the Knesset session, David Zucker also left the party to sit as an independent MK. The 1999 Meretz leadership election saw Yossi Sarid reelected as party leader. The election was held through a vote of delegates to the party's convention. The vote took place in advance of
14039-605: The party won four seats. In July 2019, Meretz agreed to form an electoral union, called the Democratic Union , with Ehud Barak 's Israel Democratic Party and breakaway Labor MK Stav Shaffir for the September elections , a decision ratified on 29 July. The alliance won five seats, three of them going to Meretz. Prior to the March 2020 elections , the party joined an alliance with Labor and Gesher , which won seven seats, three of them held by Meretz. After winning six seats in
14178-466: The party's leader in 1992 not by a formal leadership election, but instead by a consensus of the party's founding leaders. After her 1996 retirement as leader, the party held its 1996 leadership election , for which the electorate was the membership of its Party Council. The party's 1999 leadership election saw a broader electorate, with the delegates of the Party Convention voting for its leader. In
14317-525: 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
14456-519: The political spectrum. It was a social-democratic , and Left Zionist party, that supported green politics , progressive and egalitarian policies, and secularism . The party also supports a two-state solution . In addition to being a full member of Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance , it participated in Global Greens conferences. In the international media, Meretz
14595-415: The position of party chairman. The primaries were held on 7 February 2012 for the position of the party's chairman; Gal-On was elected as the chairman with 60.6% of the votes, whilst Ilan Gilon was second with 36.6%, and Uri Ofir was third with 2.8%. In the 2013 legislative election , Meretz received 4.5% of the national vote, winning six seats. On 8 December 2014, Meretz signed a surplus-vote agreement with
14734-582: 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
14873-474: The present. The novel explores themes central to Israeli society. In early 2006, he published another novel, "Highway No. 5", followed by three more novels – "The Sea Above Us" (2007), "Separate Entrance" (2009), and "Forbidden Loves" (2010). In recent years, Rubinstein hosted a radio program on Kol HaMusika – "A Musical Morning for Truck and Bus Drivers" (2014-2015). In 2022, he published the futuristic novel "Methuselah". Rubinstein published several articles on
15012-620: 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
15151-711: 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
15290-485: 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
15429-468: 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
15568-637: The state of Israel as Prof. Amnon Rubinstein – as a public figure, as a member of the legislative and executive branches, as a researcher, and as a brilliant jurist." After concluding his service in the Knesset in 2002, Rubinstein served as the dean of the Radzyner School of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (2002–2004) and was briefly appointed as the president of the Interdisciplinary Center. Rubinstein served as
15707-465: 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
15846-604: The third-largest in the Knesset. Meretz became the major coalition partner of Yitzhak Rabin 's Labor Party , helping pave the way for the Oslo Accords . The party also picked up several ministerial portfolios; Aloni was made Minister of Education, though disputes over the role of religion in education meant she was moved out of the education ministry to become Minister Without Portfolio in May 1993. In June 1993, she became Minister of Communications and Minister of Science and Technology ,
15985-787: The title of Knight of Quality Government (in the Lifetime Achievement category) from the Movement for Quality Government. He received numerous awards, including the Hashin Prize for Academic Excellence in Law (2010), the Gorney Prize for Public Law (2016) for his contribution to public law, the ISEF Award for social contribution in 2013, the Herzog Prize for unique contributions to Israel (2018), and
16124-580: 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
16263-501: 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
16402-579: 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
16541-470: 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
16680-703: Was a member of the editorial board of Haaretz and a regular contributor to the newspaper, systematically addressing issues of religion and state and combating antisemitism , particularly that which he attributed to the political left in Europe . He also wrote regularly for the Ma'ariv weekend supplement and various international publications, including the New York Times . In early 2005, Rubinstein published his debut novel , "The Blanket", depicting interconnected and separate life stories of Israeli characters from pre-state days to
16819-528: Was an Israeli legal scholar, politician and recipient of the Israel Prize . A member of the Knesset between 1977 and 2002, he served in several ministerial positions. He is referred to as the “founding father of Israeli Constitutional Law” In later life he was dean of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya and a patron of Liberal International . Rubinstein was born in Tel Aviv to Aharon,
16958-536: Was appointed Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. During his tenure, Rubinstein initiated the Electricity Sector Law, 1996, which instructed the establishment of the Public Utilities Authority – Electricity, and worked to break the monopoly of fuel companies by introducing competition in fuel imports. In 1994, after Shulamit Aloni , leader of Meretz ,
17097-468: Was appointed as the Minister of Communications, a position he held until 1987 in the 21st Israeli Government and the 22nd Israeli Government. During his tenure, he implemented several reforms, including the establishment of commercial television and cable television, regional radio, and the transformation of "Bezeq" into a commercial company. After the formation of Rabin’s government in the 1992 elections, he
17236-720: Was appointed the first dean of the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University . He served in this position until 1970. His research focused on the constitutional law of Israel, examining the nature of the state of Israel, Zionism , the status of the Law of Return , and the civil rights of Arab citizens of Israel . In 2006, he was awarded the Israel Prize for legal research. The judging panel described Rubinstein as: "The father of Israeli constitutional law. Through his deep academic writing and diverse public activities, he promotes democracy, equality, and human rights. Few can match his contribution to
17375-453: 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
17514-426: Was chosen as an acronym for Mapam ( מפ"ם ) and Ratz ( רצ ). The third party of the alliance was not reflected in its name, but was instead mentioned in the party's campaign slogan: " ממשלה עם מרצ , הכוח לעשות את ה שינוי " ( A government with vigor [Meretz] , the strength to make the change [Shinui]). Its first electoral test was a success, with the party winning twelve seats, making it
17653-511: Was described as left-wing, social-democratic, dovish , secular , civil libertarian and anti- occupation . Meretz petitioned the 2018 Nation-State Bill and petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to invalidate the legislation, arguing it was discriminatory against Arabs and the Druze. The party emphasised the following principles (not necessarily in order of importance): Shulamit Aloni became
17792-570: Was disputed. On 30 June 2024 the party agreed to merge with the Israeli Labor Party to form a new party, the Democrats . Under the merger agreement, there will be one Meretz representative in every four spots on the new party's electoral list as well as on the party bodies, and there will also be representation for Meretz's municipal factions. The agreement was ratified at a convention of delegates from both Meretz and Labor on 12 July 2024. Under
17931-583: Was established to unite and resuscitate the Israeli Zionist peace camp, which had been soundly defeated in the 2003 elections (dropping from 56 Knesset members in 1992 to 24 in 2003) following the Al-Aqsa Intifada . The party's purpose was to unite a variety of dovish Zionist movements with the dovish wing of the Labor Party. However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful as, except for the original Meretz, Shahar and Democratic Choice, no other movement joined
18070-411: Was forced to resign from the Ministry of Education due to statements that angered religious elements in the government regarding the origins of humanity , Rubinstein was appointed Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport. He served in this position until 1996. As Minister of Education, he gained popularity due to his liberal stance, especially regarding high school matriculation exams, and his opinions on
18209-517: Was met by mixed reactions from the ultra-Orthodox parties; Shas 's Nissim Ze'ev was the harshest, saying Even "symbolized the bestialization of humanity", adding that he should be "hidden under the carpet" and banned from entering the Knesset. For the 2003 elections , Meretz were joined by Roman Bronfman 's Democratic Choice . However, the party shrank in representation again, this time to just six seats. Sarid immediately took responsibility and resigned from leadership, though he did not retire from
18348-487: 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
18487-553: 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
18626-618: 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
18765-631: Was still alive. Burg delivered a eulogy and even recited the Kel Maleh Rachamim prayer. In July 2002, Rubinstein announced his resignation from the Knesset. His resignation took effect at the end of October that year. Rubinstein served as the patron of the Liberal International and previously as a vice president of the organization. With the formation of the National Unity Government led by Shimon Peres in 1984, Rubinstein
18904-527: 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
19043-540: 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
19182-408: 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
19321-570: 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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