The Ashkenazi Revolution

as the study of ancient Russian was not required for the communistrevolution and the study of ancient French was not necessary for theinstigators of the French Revolution. But not in vain did Zionism investsuch great efforts in the revival of the Hebrew language, efforts thatexceeded, by several fold, those that were invested in all the other areas ofactivity, execution, war and analytical thought. The New Hebrew, with itsnice Sephardic ring, gave the Hebrew settlement in the Land of Israel adistinctive profile that set it apart, superficially, from the other diasporas.Modern Hebrew solved, for the Hebrew settlement in the Land of Israel,the dilemma of how to be a diaspora and, at the same time, to appear as if itis not a diaspora. In addition to this, Modern Hebrew contained quite a fewother very important ingredients for non-revolutionaries to appear as if theywere revolutionaries. The linguistic revolution, which lacks any value,served as a substitute for a true, political, revolution. In the conquest ofHebrew words, there was something of an illusion that it was not aconquest of words but a conquest of a new reality. Moreover: The NewHebrew presented the settlement the magical tool that enabled it, on onehand, to destroy the feeling of shared identity with the Jewish masses ofEastern Europe and, on the other hand, to rule over them through thoseHebrew words. A shared language is the typical tool to create a dominantfeeling and an all-purpose substitute for shared identity. Through Hebrewwords, the Hebrew settlement of the Land of Israel destroyed this feelingbetween itself and the Jewish masses of the Diaspora, and it freed itselffrom the obligation to be revolutionaries toward them, at the same timeforming a tool for itself to recruit the aid of Diaspora Jewry for its ownpurposes. The New Hebrew won because it is a force that allows an escapefrom, and a release from, the high level of revolutionary stress. It allows arelease from true national obligations while benefiting from low and weaklevels of stress by hiding behind a curtain of pretty words. In theconfrontation between the Hebrew settlement in the Land of Israel andHitler, during the years 1933-1944, the Hebrew language proved, in a mostconvincing way, why it was created. The Hebrew settlement conducteditself, during this confrontation, with cowardice as it hid behind prettywords. The typical heroic image of the non-Revisionist settlement of thattime, Hannah Szenes, knew very little Hebrew; and it is likely that had she136