HOLY LAND BOOK - Draft

Israel has two official languages: Hebrew and
Arabic. English is very widely spoken as a
second language, and with a recent influx of
immigrants from Eastern Europe (Romanians
being a large part), Russian has also become
commonplace. Three dozen languages are
spoken in Israel …including Bulgarian, Czech,
Egyptian Spoken Arabic (25,000), French (40,000),
Italian (7,249), Levantine Bedawi Spoken Arabic
(50,000), Malayalam (8,000), Marathi (8,000), North
Levantine Spoken Arabic (100,000), Northern
Uzbek, Samaritan, Samaritan Aramaic, Spanish
(60,000), Standard German (200,000), Turkish
(30,000), Western Farsi, Western Yiddish, many
other languages.
Hebrew is a linguistic cousin to Arabic, written
from right to left in printed and cursive forms. It
is not at all the same as Yiddish, which like
English, is a Germanic language in the Indo-
European language family.
The most famous work originally written in
Hebrew is the Tanakh, though the time at which
it was written is a matter of dispute (see dating
the Bible for details). The earliest extant copies
were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, written
between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st
century CE.
After the depletion of the Jewish population of
parts of Roman occupied Judea, it is believed
that Hebrew gradually ceased to be a spoken
language roughly around 200 CE, but has stayed
as the major written language throughout the
centuries. Not only religious, but texts for a large
variety of purposes: letters and contracts,
science, philosophy, medicine, poetry, protocols
of courts—all resorted to Hebrew, which thus
adapted itself to various new fields and
terminologies by borrowings and new
inventions.
The revival of Hebrew as a mother tongue was
initiated by the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
(1858-1922). He joined the Jewish national
movement and in 1881 emigrated to Eretz Israel,
then a province of the Ottoman Empire.
Motivated by the surrounding ideals of
renovation and rejection of the Diaspora "shtetl"
lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for
making the literary and liturgical language into
everyday spoken language.
The literacy rate in Israel is 97.1% (2009) and it
boasts the world’s second highest per capita of
new books published. Israelis are avid newspaper
readers, with more than 90% of Israeli adults
reading a newspaper at least once a week. Major
daily papers are in Hebrew; others are in Arabic,
English, French, Polish, Yiddish, Russian,
Romanian, Hungarian, and German.
Israel has several professional ballet and modern
dance companies, and folk dancing, which draws
upon the cultural heritage of many immigrant
groups, continues to be very popular. There is
great public interest in the theater; the repertoire
covers the entire range of classical and
contemporary drama in translation as well as
plays by Israeli authors. Of the three major
repertory companies, the most famous, Habimah,
was founded in 1917.
The arts are actively encouraged and supported by
the government. The Israeli Philharmonic
Orchestra performs throughout the country and
frequently tours abroad.
The Jerusalem Symphony and the New Israel
Opera also tour frequently, as do other musical
ensembles. Almost every municipality has a
chamber orchestra or ensemble, many boasting
the talents of gifted performers from the countries
of the former Soviet Union.
The origins of the Philharmonic are interesting. In
1935, all Jewish musicians in Germany were
dismissed from their jobs by the Nazi government.
Bronislaw Huberman a Polish-born concert
violinist from Vienna, recruited 75
instrumentalists from throughout Europe to
immigrate to Palestine with him to form a new
Jewish orchestra.
Arturo Toscanini conducted the Palestine
Symphony's first concert, in Tel Aviv on Dec. 26,
1936. The Italian maestro refused any payment,
declaring, "I am doing this for humanity."