Yom Ha’Ivrit is celebrated in Israel on כ”א בטבת , which is the birth date of Eliezer Ben Yehuda (Perlman) The Revivalist of the Hebrew Language.
“Hebrew is an ancient language that has been spoken over many centuries in the land of Israel and preserved by Jews throughout the Diaspora as a medium of cultural and religious expression. With the rise of Zionism and the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the Hebrew language revived as a spoken tongue and has embraced many new terms and constructions to reflect the reality of modern life.
Modern Hebrew draws on all the previous historical layers of the Hebrew language. New meanings are ascribed to ancient words and new words are created in line with patterns and paradigms native to the ancient tongue.” Academy of Hebrew Language
Hebrew, as you may know, is an Old-New language. Its revival – miraculous.
We, at Yavneh, are “ambassadors” of the Hebrew Language and pay homage to the language and its revivalists: Ben Yehuda, Bialik, Yellin, and many more and most of all to all the teachers who fought for and made this miracle happen.
This year, Yom Ha’Ivrit is on January 5th, marking the birth date of Ben Yehuda. Though the year 2021 is very challenging, as much of our work is done online, the Hebrew Department at Yavneh, using a variety of tools, has been working on developing a program for Shavua Ha’Ivrit (a “Hebrew Week” starting Jan. 5th), geared to this new unprecedented situation.
During Hebrew Week, the students will be watching a short video telling the story of Eliezer Ben Yehuda and learning about the new words Eliezer and others coined. They will be learning about onomatopoeic words in Hebrew and voicing Hebrew Tongue Twisters. They will be introduced to “the mechanism” of coining new words in Hebrew and they will join in the effort of inventing new words. They will learn how to choose between beloved Hebrew words and idioms while explaining how and why the choice is made. In addition, they will be reciting short passages and will be writing about it in the Hebrew Language.
We hope you’ll join us in our celebration.
I am proud and excited about this unique achievement: A language reborn.
~ Edna and the Hebrew Team
I am attaching herewith a very inconclusive short SIHON of basic Hebrew Dialogue.
