The war of the languages ( he, מלחמת השפות; ) was a heated debate in

Ottoman Palestine Ottoman Syria ( ar, سوريا العثمانية) refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and south ...

over the

language of instruction A medium of instruction (plural: media of instruction, or mediums of instruction) is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. If the first language of students is different from the offic ...

in the country's new

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

schools. This "language war" was a cornerstone event in the history of the

revival of the Hebrew language 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 ...

History

In 1913, the German Jewish aid agency ', which had maintained schools for Jewish immigrants in Palestine since 1905, sought to establish

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

as the language of instruction at the first technical high school, the Technikum, in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

(later, the Technion), which it was sponsoring. This sparked a public controversy between those who supported the use of German and those who believed that

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

should be the language spoken by the Jewish people in their homeland. The issue was not just ideological, because until then, Hebrew was primarily a

liturgical language A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Concept A sacre ...

and lacked modern technical terms.How German built the Hebrew language
/ref> The

Haifa City Museum The Haifa City Museum was inaugurated in November 2000 as the historical City Museum. Its location, at the edge of Haifa’s German Colony and near the historical part of the city, affords a view of a rich and complex urban fabric that reveals the ...

produced an exhibit on the "War of the Languages" curated by Svetlana Reingold, in 2011.

References

External links

War of the Languages
Jews and Judaism in Ottoman Palestine Hebrew language Linguistic controversies {{Ottoman-stub History of the German language

History

See also

References

External links