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“It might be suggested that our want of a common current language would present difficulties. Who amongst us has a sufficient acquaintance with hebrew to ask for a railway ticket in that language? […]
Theodor herzl
The revival of a language is not a simple matter. In his book Altneuland (Old New Land), Theodor herzl dismissed the possibility that hebrew, which had been dead as a spoken language for hundreds of years, would be the preferred language of the Jewish State.
The Zionist community in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel turned into an arena where hebrew and Yiddish clashed. In that clash, which was called the dispute over the languages, hebrew was portrayed as the language of the Jewish people who were returning to their land and as the sole language adopted by the Zionist movement. Yiddish, on the other hand, was characterized as being associated with the Diaspora lifestyle whose roots and memory had to be erased. During the second wave of Zionist immigration, the clash assumed a belligerent nature which was often evinced in psychological terror and even acts of violence.
