A Dream Come True

by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922), a Russian Jew, was the leader of the movement to revive the Hebrew language - the only attempt we know of that succeeded in restoring an archaic language to use in everyday speech. This memoir is an account of his life until 1882, a year after he settled in Jerusalem. It contains a description of his early life in the Jewish Pale of Settlement, which shows him moving away from traditional Jewish religious beliefs toward the Hebrew enlightenment and then into revolutionary socialism. The last part of the book gives a glimpse of life in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem's Old City in the early 1880s.
But most interesting, perhaps, is Ben-Yehuda's account of his conversion to Jewish nationalism while he was still at school. This took place in 1877, four years before the pogroms and nearly twenty years before Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, appeared on the scene. The reasons for the change had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Ben-Yehuda was one of very few Jews who became "Zionists" (in his case, two decades before the word was invented) prior to 1881, and he is the only one who left a memoir of the process that led him to his belief. In every other case there is an element - usually very large - of guesswork in trying to explain why the conversion happened. Ben-Yehuda's is a fascinating account of that intellectual process.

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Azam Ch. · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good, talks about the childhood, adulthood and his early years in eastern europe, france and palestine of eliezer ben-yehuda - a guy really passionate about reviving hebrew and also very passionate about getting jews to settle in palestine who he believed was the ancestral holy land and its a pretty interesting read to see how passionate he was, and also how different things were back then for the jews in those times.

a good book, although a bit too short and ends up when he didnt even hit 30, but really good nevertheless and theres glimpses of then and now (he wrote it as a old man) througout it to fill up the possible missing out on the extra years, and yeah pretty good to read.

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P.S = i still wonder why it ended up so short, tried looking up why but could find no answers so if someone someday stumbles upon this review and knows why you can hit me up back up here.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

You hear a lot about the start of modern Hebrew - facts, opinions, and ponderings - so it’s interesting to hear it straight from the source. That’s the cool part about primary sources, I guess.