Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is the revivor of the Hebrew language. He has created new words, and have wrote many hebrew articles and essays in many places, including his own newspaper HaTzvi. Along with Ahad Ha‘am, Ben-Yehuda was an advocate of Cultural Zionism.

Quotes

• To conquer the land of our forefathers before us, not by force, nor by the power of weapons and war, but through a spirit of loyalty to the ruler of the land and by the power of money; and he calls it by the name: ‘The Society for the Redeemers of the Land.’
  • In “Revival of Israel”
• I saw a Hebrew people in the ancient land of the Hebrews. A small people, a people few in number, scattered and dispersed among nations and tongues. Yet a people that speaks in its own language, and at times even compels others to know its tongue and to speak it.
  • In HaTzvi, 21 November 1909, “For the Development of the Hebrew Language in Palestine”.
• To Palestine in the next few years will come its sons from the east and the west, from the north and from the negev (south). Russia’s Jews and Yemen’s Jews and Babylon’s Jews and the Jews of Europe. Each man speaks the language of the land from which he came, and yet all know and recognize that they are brothers. And only Hebrew itself unites them all together into one family.
  • In HaTzvi, 21 November 1909, “For the Development of the Hebrew Language in Palestine”.
• Due to the abundance of languages of the Jews of Palestine that are of different countries, they need one general language, one shared by all. And this language can only be... Hebrew
  • In HaTzvi, 16 November 1909, “‘Help’ in Palestine”.
• Amongst the questions of the [Zionist] movement of Jewish revival, one of the more important questions is the question of the revival of the Culture and the Hebrew language... It is one of the more important works in the work of the movement in Diaspora and Palestine in particular.
  • In HaTzvi, 24 September 1912, “The Echo of the Small Zionist Gathering”