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en-yehuda, Ḥemdah
death, his widow and his son Ehud continued his publication
which was completed in 1959 (17 vols.), with an introductory
volume, Ha-Mavo ha-Gadol (“Prolegomenon”).
In 1890, together with David Yellin, Aaron Masie, and
others, Ben-Yehuda founded the Va’ad ha-Lashon over which
he presided until his death. This va’ad was the forerunner of
the *Academy of the Hebrew Language which Ben-Yehuda
had also suggested in 1920.
Ben-Yehuda was among the supporters of the *Uganda
scheme; he wrote articles in Ha-Ẓevi advocating the idea, and
even a special pamphlet called Ha-Medinah ha-Yehudit (1905).
His views incurred many enemies for him among those who
were not prepared to exchange Zion for any other country. On
the other hand, he won general respect when he led the fight
(1913–14) against the plan of the *Hilfsverein der deutschen
Juden to introduce German as the language of instruction in
its secondary schools in Palestine and in the technical college
which was about to be established in Haifa.
During World War I, when Jamal Pasha, the Turkish
commander in Palestine, outlawed Zionism, Ben-Yehuda
left for the United States. There he wrote his book Ad Eimatai
Dibberu Ivrit? (“Until When was Hebrew Spoken?” 1919). He
returned to Palestine in 1919. Together with M. *Ussishkin, he
prevailed upon Herbert *Samuel, the British high commissioner,
to declare Hebrew one of the three official languages
of the country. He founded Sefatenu, a society for the propagation
of Hebrew, and also served as secretary of the Planning
Committee of the Hebrew University. A number of his writings
were collected and published posthumously: the anthology
Yisrael le-Arẓo ve-li-Leshono (1929) and Avot ha-Lashon
ha-Ivrit; part 1: Rabbi Akiva (1945).
Ben-Yehuda’s cultural activities and achievements fall
into four divisions: (1) The revival of spoken Hebrew. Hebrew
was spoken before the days of Ben-Yehuda but only intermittently.
The very sanctity with which the language was invested
prevented its daily use. Ben-Yehuda made Hebrew speech a
national goal. He was convinced that a living Hebrew, spoken
by the people in its own land, was indispensable to the political
and cultural rebirth of the nation. In this view Ben-Yehuda
differed from *Smolenskin, *Lilienblum, and *Herzl, who
were able to envisage a Jewish homeland without Hebrew as
its mother tongue. Ben-Yehuda fought untiringly and uncompromisingly
for this ideal. He lived to see his vision realized:
the revival of the *Hebrew language as a spoken tongue after
more than two thousand years. (2) The creation of a simple,
popular style in Hebrew literature. Ben-Yehuda fought against
the use of inflated rhetoric and the archaic expressions and
forms which had lost their appeal. He demanded simplicity
and concreteness in Hebrew prose which, until then, had been
rhetorical and florid. With this objective in mind, he translated
a number of stories from various languages into plain,
unadorned Hebrew. (3) Ben-Yehuda was the first to make a
regular and systematic practice of coining Hebrew words. Neologism
was not new to Hebrew, but it had never been done
methodically and specifically to meet the practical demands
which were constantly being made on the language in daily
speech, in journalism, in science, and in literature. (4) His
dictionary complemented his achievement of the revival of
spoken Hebrew. The dictionary attempts to include all the
Hebrew words used in the different periods and developmental
stages of the language. It is also arranged in the manner of
modern European language dictionaries, and not according to
word roots, as was customary in former Hebrew dictionaries.
A characteristic feature of the dictionary is its bold omission
of all Aramaic words, as well as other foreign words found in
the Bible, Talmud, Midrash, and other works that are not of
Semitic origin.
Bibliography: R. St. John, The Tongue of the Prophets (1952);
R. Brainin (ed.), Sefer Zikkaron le-Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1918); D. Yellin,
Ben Yehudah and the Revival of the Hebrew Language (c. 1924); I. Ben-
Avi, Avi (1927); J. Kena’ani, Eliezer Ben Yehuda (Heb., 1929), contains
bibl.; Ḥ. Ben Yehuda, Ben Yehuda, Ḥayyav u-Mifalo (1940); idem, Ha-
Loḥem ha-Me’ushar (1932); J. Klausner, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Toledotav
u-Mifal Ḥayyav (1939); A. Herzberg, The Zionist Idea (1960), 158–65; J.
Fichman, Be-Terem Aviv (1959), 195–203, 215ff.; R. Sivan, in: Leshonenu
la-Am, 12 (1961/62), 35–77; G. Kressel (ed.), Ḥol va-Ru’aḥ (1964);
idem, Toledot ha-Ittonut ha-Ivrit be-Ereẓ Yisrael (19642), 67–100; Kressel,
Leksikon, 1 (1965), 275ff. (includes bibl.). Add. Bibliography:
J. Fellman, The Revival of a Classic Tongue: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and
the Modern Hebrew Language (1973).
[Joseph Gedaliah Klausner]
BEN-YEHUDA, ḤEMDAH (1873–1951), Hebrew author;
wife of Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda. Her sister Deborah was Ben-
Yehuda’s first wife. After she died, Ḥemdah went to Jerusalem
from Lithuania and married Ben-Yehuda in 1892. She aided
her husband in his literary work, wrote articles and stories
for his papers, and after his death in 1922 concerned herself
with the continued publication of his multi-volume dictionary.
Her two main works were Ben Yehuda, Ḥayyav u-Mifalo
(1940), a life of Ben Yehuda, and Nose ha-Degel (1944) on her
stepson Ithamar *Ben-Avi.
Bibliography: J. Harari, Ishah va-Em be-Yisrael (1959)
273–7.
[Getzel Kressel]
BEN YEHUDA, NETIVA (1928– ), Israeli military officer,
writer, and scholar of spoken Hebrew, who embodied the heroic
voluntarism and utter loyalty to the “Jewish national rebirth
in its homeland” that was the hallmark of the *Palmaḥ
from the 1940s. Fearlessness, physical prowess, and total devotion
were some of the features that distinguished this young
officer, whose military specialties included topography, reconnaissance,
and demolition. Born in Tel Aviv and educated at
the Herzlia Hebrew Gymnasium, where her father, Baruch
(1894–1990), served as teacher and principal (he later became
the first director general of Israel’s Ministry of Education and
Culture), Ben Yehuda volunteered for the Palmaḥ and later
served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. She married
in 1950 and gave birth to a daughter, Amal, in 1953. Ben Yehuda
and her husband separated in 1962 and later divorced.
388 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3