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From "Rise of the Scorpion: The Epic Founding of the Judean Legion" by David Scott, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002

...After a week spent consulting with Ottoman officers in Constantinople, Dreyfus departed for Jerusalem on October 11. He and his family disembarked at Jaffa on October 18 and made the journey to Jerusalem on October 19. That evening, Dreyfus attended Shabbat services at the Western Wall in full dress uniform...

...General Dreyfus' first order of business upon arrival was to establish a headquarters. Herzl had provided him and Captain Picard with temporary quarters and office space at the Sultan, but Dreyfus insisted on a permanent site. He identified the small Arab village of Al-Qastal [1] as ideal, located atop the ruins of an ancient Roman fort overlooking the main road to Jerusalem. A grant from the Rothschilds was sufficient to induce the handful of residents to relocate, and on November 3, the Jewish flag was raised over Hakastel, the first military base of the Jerusalem Guard...

...Dreyfus had little trouble finding recruits. A significant number of Russian Jews had been conscripted into the Russian military, and Dreyfus was eager to make use of them as NCOs (although, he would note, many of those Russian veterans were vague on how they had come to leave Russian service, and quite a few openly admitted to having deserted). His officers were mostly from Western nations, Jews who believed (correctly or not) that they had been denied advancement due to their faith, or simply believed that promotion would be more forthcoming in a brand-new military force.

Most of his recruits were the usual sort - young men with few opportunities, attracted by the prospect of steady pay, rations, and housing. The requirements of the latter factor resulted in the first duties of most recruits being the construction of their own barracks, often under the direction of Russian-born NCOs (creating the enduring stereotype of the angry Russian drill sergeant). By January 1, 1901, no trace remained of the village of Al-Qastal...

...part of the reason for the intensity of military construction in the first years of the Jerusalem Guard was a lack of arms with which to train. The Sultan might have authorized the Guard's creation, but he was also wary of creating a force that might rebel under the wrong circumstances. Arms were largely provided from Ottoman surpluses, and Dreyfus found the rate of delivery maddeniningly slow. Furthermore, the arms themselves were often poorly maintained. To solve the problem, Dreyfus established an arms depot north of Yaffa to repair damaged guns. His reasoning for placing it away from Jerusalem was to give it room to grow, although it is doubtful even he realized that the "gun shop" at Tel Barzel [2] would one day become a world-renowned arms industry...

From "Old-New Tongue: The Revival of the Hebrew Language" by Dr. Avraham Cohen, Hebrew University Press, 1990 (translated from Hebrew)

...The establishment of the Jerusalem Guard brought to the fore one of the most divisive issues in early Zionism: what should the language of the Jewish nation be?

There were essentially four schools of thought on the issue. The first school favored Yiddish. Yiddish had the simple advantage of being widely spoken, particularly by the Ashkenazic Jews who dominated the Zionist movement and made up a majority of Jews worldwide. It was also a recognizably Jewish language. However, Yiddish was also derided by most leading Zionists as the language of the ghetto, a part of the past which they hoped to leave behind.

The second school, which initially included Theodore Herzl and Edmond Rotshayil [3], favored adopting a European language. For obvious reasons, Herzl preferred German, while Rotshayil advocated for French. Initially, both languages were used by Herzl's administration, making multilingualism a virtual necessity. The advocates of the European school believed that if the Jews wanted to build a modern state, they needed a modern (ie, European) language. However, relatively few Jews actually spoke French or German, although Yiddish-speakers could generally make themselves understood by German-speakers if they made an effort to do so.

The third school favored Arabic. This school was dominated by Mizrahi Jews, including both those native to the Holy Land and immigrants from elsewhere in the Empire, many arriving as part of the population exchanges. The Arabic school argued that it was only natural for a nation in the Middle East to speak a Middle Eastern language, and they had the advantage that not only did the Mizrahi Jews speak Arabic, but so did the Arabs who were still a majority in the province.

The fourth school, led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and a number of leading Zionists, favored resurrecting Hebrew. The obstacles were clear - Hebrew had not been a first language in millenia, and few spoke it fluently. However, Hebrew had two great advantages. First, it was a distinctly Jewish language. Second, it was the only language common to all Jews, and if few Jews spoke it fluently, far more spoke at least a little of it.

The Zionist Congress had debated the issue at length for years, with no clear resolution. It had become something of a hot-button topic, occasionally leading to outright violence (particularly directed at Yiddish-speakers). Into this debate entered General Dreyfus...

From "My Redemption" by General Alfred Dreyfus (ret.), Judean Military Academy Press, 1928 (translated from the Hebrew)

Even more maddening than the lack of quality arms was the lack of a common language. I had some experience with troops who spoke other tongues, having met the occasional Breton, Basque, or Catalan in French service. But my new army at Hakastel was a veritable Tower of Babel. Most of my sergeants were Russian, but my officers included Frenchmen, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Britons, and one very loud American. My recruits seemed about equally divided between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. To top it all off, Herzl seemed determined to stamp out the use of Yiddish, a language I personally did not speak, but seemed to be the most common among my troops.

The solution soon presented itself, although I must admit it took me some time to realize it. I recall multiple incidents where I found two soldiers, obviously from different backgrounds, conversing in broken Hebrew. Giving complex orders was difficult, but simple commands were well-understood, particularly a bellowed "SHEKET!" [4]. Finally, I made my decision, and I immediately sent for Monsieur Ben-Yehuda. Together, we devised a plan to make Hebrew the official language of the Guard, and I helped expand the military terminology of his Hebrew dictionary [5]. By April, daily orders were being posted in Hebrew. In August, I took great pleasure in reading a report on expanding production at Tel Barzel written in the language of King David. After briefly imagining King David reading a report on the production of weapons for his own armies, I forwarded it to Governor Herzl, along with a proposal to support his Hebrew Language Committee, which I envisioned as becoming our own Academie Française [6] [7]...

[1] Historically, Al-Qastal remained an Arab village until 1948, when the site became a key battleground during the Israeli War of Independence. Today it is the suburb of Mevaseret Zion.
[2] "Iron Hill", located more or less on the original site of OTL's Tel Aviv.
[3] "Rotshayil" (רוטשייל) is an ITTL Hebraization of "Rothschild", which was favored by the Rothschilds who settled in Palestine. Its use here is a deliberate anachronism.
[4] "Sheket" is Hebrew for "silence" or "quiet", but can also be used as "shut up". Modern Jews may recall the more polite variant "sheket b'vakashah" ("please be quiet") from Hebrew school or Jewish summer camps.
[5] One result of this is that ITTL, much of Modern Hebrew's military terminology is borrowed from French.
[6] IOTL, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a prominent figure in the resurrection of the Hebrew language, but his importance has been exaggerated. The Hebrew Language Committee became the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1953. ITTL, Ben-Yehuda gets formal endorsement from Herzl and Dreyfus, the Academy is created in 1901, and his actual influence mostly matches his renown in popular history.
[7] The same forces - disdain for Yiddish, the need for a language shared by all Jews - resulted in Hebrew being enshrined as the primary language of Israel IOTL, although the process took a bit longer.