Proud American
I was in Downtown Jerusalem yesterday during the rain. As you can see, there were a fair number of other people also shopping and doing business, the rain didn’t stop them either.
The plaza, which used to be a road before 1980, was named after Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the “Father of Modern Hebrew.” He was the first to realize that the new nation of Israel would need to update the language as more and more people were coming to Israel from other countries. Many of the first immigrants were from Russia, Germany and Arab lands. They needed a common language. Most Jews, already knew Hebrew from the Bible and prayers, but there were many words that the prayers didn’t have. How would you say “Ice Cream?” He took the word from Italian, Glace, and in Hebrew it is “Gleeda.” Other words he took straight from the Bible, changing its meaning into modern context. From the book of Ezekiel, he took the work “Chashmal,” to mean electricity, and the word “Ofanaiim” to mean bicycle.
He used the grammar that had been developed in the Middle Ages, as well as the Hebrew printing fonts and handwriting fonts that had been in use before.
So we owe Eliezer Ben Yehuda our Modern Hebrew words. For more information go to this link and read a great book about how Modern Hebrew came about.
Isn’t it cool that almost every cool city in the world has a place where you can go called “downtown”? LOL. My best memories of growing up are catching the bus to go hang out in downtown Miami.
The most beautiful people on earth! I love Israel and the Jews. Thank you, Rachael!
I have been living here in Jerusalem since 1991! Come and visit!
It has always been our dream to visit Israel. On our retirement… 🙂
Retirement? So start saving up the money now!
Please come to visit Israel, there is a lot to see and discover here. I will be writing more posts about Israel.
so beautiful, what a wonderful place to stroll. I love walking around places like this~!~~~~
Love your post, Rachael. I know that spot really well 🙂 It’s nice to see you getting some rain, even if it is not so pleasant to go shopping in! The story of the revival of Hebrew is unique.
I met one of my Hebrew students who I had been teaching for about a year, so it was very fun to finally meet her. Yes, come to Jerusalem!!!
I would love to visit Jerusalem one day! ?