WI: No push for Secular Hebrew Language

Towelie

Banned
It was well known that the leaders of the Jewish settlement project in the Holy Land, particularly after the Second Aliyah, were known to have encouraged the secular usage of the Hebrew language and went as far as to openly try to stamp out the use of Yiddish. Only the most religious communities kept the language, because they wanted to preserve Hebrew for religious use.

This gradually became the norm in Israel over time, and successive waves of immigrants and refugees assimilated by learning Hebrew.

What if this never happened? What if there was no push to use Hebrew as a common secular language, and the Ashkenazis who made up the Second Aliyah went on with speaking mostly Yiddish? How would a language barrier between Ashkenazis and later Mizrahi immigrants reflect itself in the underlying racial tension that still exists to this day?
 
It's unlikely that the Zionists would stick with Yiddish, even if the Hebrew revival hadn't happened (for what it's worth, the Hebrew revival isn't exactly a product of Zionism in the sense of settling Palestine, but more a result of Zionism in the sense of forging a Jewish national identity in the modern sense). Many Zionists disliked Yiddish, considering it to be the language of backwards, oppressed "old Jews" in contrast to the emancipated, progressive "new Jews" they were trying to create.

Barring Hebrew - which I think is definitely possible - the language of Israel will probably either end up being another major language: German is most likely, since it was the prestige language in most of Central Europe; Russian is possible, since more Jews were under Russian authority than anyone else, and many (especially the educated) spoke a little Russian, though French might be more likely by the same token and also by token of being the lingua franca. English is possible but less likely. Interestingly, Esperanto is a serious contender, in my opinion: it was actually invented by a Jew, and the sense of supernationality and newness might appeal strongly to the Zionist leadership.
 
I think Hebrew was inevitable, given the influence of people like Achad ha'am. choosing a diaspora language would be like choosing Uganda. However, in the spirit of the thread, I vote French. Russian has bad associations with the Czar. Post WW2 German would be right out. English is possible but only if the mandate ends differently. Arabic would be the big wild card given a large enough mizrachi cohort and a determined attempt to ingraciate/integrate in the the wider middle east.
 

Towelie

Banned
Were there a large number of Jewish Arabic speakers?

I suppose there were, I'd never really thought of it before.
The majority of Israeli Jews today have roots in Arabic speaking countries. I would assume so, yes.

However, the leadership class of the Jewish state at its onset and in its organization were mostly Yiddish (or Russian) and Hebrew speaking Europeans. Hebrew as it was alluded to was seen as a mark of being a sabra, and shedding the oppressed ghetto and shtetl lifestyle of Eastern European Jews of old. But this was also a very secular group of Jews who did not have the misgivings about using a religious language in everyday life that other Jewish groups had and still have to this day.

Perhaps having a more religiously based Zionism from the start could have prevented the rise of secular Hebrew language. I don't know Jabotinsky's views on Hebrew, but he was certainly closer to a religious form of Zionism than the Zionist Congress and Herzl were. However, the impracticability of his ideas regarding territorial expansion hampered his influence without a doubt.
 
I don't know Jabotinsky's views on Hebrew, but he was certainly closer to a religious form of Zionism than the Zionist Congress and Herzl were. However, the impracticability of his ideas regarding territorial expansion hampered his influence without a doubt.

Jabotinsky was completely a secularist; he wasn't in any way religious or pro-religious, aside from not being actively anti-religious. And Beitar as an organization seems to have used Hebrew as its primary language.

...But this was also a very secular group of Jews who did not have the misgivings about using a religious language in everyday life that other Jewish groups had and still have to this day.

Hebrew has a long history as being used as a profane language, even by people who weren't secularists. Hebrew was used throughout the Medieval period to write contracts and correspondence in the Jewish world, as more or less every Jewish trader or professional could be counted on to be literate in Hebrew, while e.g. a Spanish and a Byzantine Jew might not share any other languages.

And don't forget that, for example, Ben Yehuda himself was what would today be considered Orthodox.

I'd argue that the refusal of some Haredim to speak Hebrew today is more of an aberration than Zionist willingness to speak it. Additionally, I suspect (though it's impossible to prove) that a lot of the refusal to speak Hebrew has more to do with opposing Zionism and the Jewish state than it does with profaning the sacred language.

Then again, these are people who write "Elokim" instead of "Elohim", and then pronounce it as "haShem", so who knows.

choosing a diaspora language would be like choosing Uganda

If the Hebrew revival existed, then it's certainly going to be chosen; I thought the premise of the thread was no Hebrew revival.
 
Top