Nissim Behar (February 15, 1848 – January 1, 1931) was a

Sephardi Jew Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

ish educator, born in Jerusalem, and long associated with the Alliance Israélite Universelle, both there and in the

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. After receiving his pension, he became a propagandist, in 1899. for the Alliance, and later for early Zionism. Nissim Behar can be seen as the founder of modern Hebrew language education, largely because Eliezer Ben Yehuda taught Hebrew using the new "direct method". Behar himself learned Hebrew from Ben Yehuda, the 'Father of Spoken Renovated Hebrew' and later became a teacher of modern Hebrew at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Jerusalem, which he directed from 1882 to 1887. Behar was a strong advocate of the direct method, which prevailed in the further development of Hebrew language education in the framework of the " ulpan" system, that led to the success of

Hebrew revival The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and Palestine toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and written language u ...

. In 1901, Behar moved to New York City, where he directed the National Liberal Immigration League (1906 to 1924), to lobby against anti-immigration legislation in the United States. The League was a constant irritation for Louis Marshall of the

American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...

, because it made no effort to hide its Jewish identity in its high-profile activities against restricting immigration. Marshall and the AJC, while similarly opposed to restrictions, felt any public Jewish role would undermine their lobbying campaign and provoke anti-Semitism; the AJC refrained from such public activities on the issue, and Marshall's work was usually confined to behind-the-scenes contacts with individual members of Congress.

Rafael Medoff Rafael Medoff (born 1959) is an American professor of Jewish history and the founding director of The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which is based in Washington, D.C. and focuses on issues related to America's response ...

, ''Jewish Americans and Political Participation: a reference handbook'', p.213. Behar was an enthusiastic propagandist for the Zionist idea; he called for the return of the ''Kotel Hamaaravi'', the Wailing Wall, to Jewish hands.

References

External links

Nissim Behar
Contemporary biography at the

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

(c.1902) 1848 births 1931 deaths Zionists Sephardi Jews in Ottoman Palestine Educators from Jerusalem Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States Jewish educators Modern Hebrew {{Judaism-bio-stub