The Story of Hebrew

by Lewis Glinert

The Story of Hebrew explores the extraordinary hold that Hebrew has had on Jews and Christians, who have invested it with a symbolic power far beyond that of any other language in history. Preserved by the Jews across two millennia, Hebrew endured long after it ceased to be a mother tongue, resulting in one of the most intense textual cultures ever known. Hebrew was a bridge to Greek and Arab science, and it unlocked the biblical sources for Jerome and the Reformation. Kabbalists and humanists sought philosophical truth in it, and Colonial Americans used it to shape their own Israelite political identity. Today, it is the first language of millions of Israelis. A major work of scholarship, The Story of Hebrew is an unforgettable account of what one language has meant and continues to mean.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Judaism, Language, Jewish, Linguistics, Israel

296 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2018

Reviews

[Petra X]

Hebrew is a remarkable language in that no one in the first half of the 20th C actually spoke it as a first language or as the vernacular. No other dead language or one with strictly liturgical use has ever been brought back to life as the first language of a nation. Irish Gaelic supporters are trying but when English is the dominant language and unites everyone it won't succeed in being more than a learned language for most people.

If you want to discuss whether or not the British Mandate should have formed Israel and Jordan from the land, this is not the place. This is about a language that unites disparate people who have no means of sharing communication. If there had been the internet, I don't know if Hebrew would have succeeded. Probably people would have spoken English.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short history of the Hebrew language is easy to read and very approachable by layman and student alike. Just because this book is short doesn’t mean it isn’t covering a lot of ground. Reading this book is like going on a ship cruise – you get to see a lot in a summary fashion, a lot you want to go back and visit again in depth. Dr. Glinert has done a remarkable job telling what could be a very dusty, academic history into a captivating story of how the Hebrew language evolved from ancient Israel / Judea to modern day.

One can’t tell a story about a language without also telling the story of the people who use it. And it is no different with this short linguistic history. Dr. Glinert highlights each of the major milestones in the languages history, biblical – focusing on how the language changed through the exiles, moving to the destruction of the temple and the influence by the Greco-Roman culture, into Late Antiquity / early Middle Ages and how the Diaspora was different for Jews in the Oriental East and the Occidental West, through the High Middle Ages and Renaissance period, moving to Western European period of Enlightenment & Romanticism, finally covering the years of modern history through current.

For those not versed in the history of this language there are a lot of surprises to be found in this short tome. For instance, what we know of today as the Hebraic script is actually Aramaic in origin and derived from the original Assyrian. How this Hebraic / Aramaic script evolved in the minds of those who used it over the course of history it is easy to see how it was imbued with being holy script. The ancient (and original) Hebrew script – nothing like the current Hebraic – ceased to be used during the Babylonian exile.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Jewish peoples, linguistics and/or modern history - too well written to be passed up.

Dr. Lewis Gilnert is a Professor of Hebrew Studies at Dartmouth College

[Mark Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finds the romance I was hoping to experience in the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language. Finds a great deal more romance than I knew existed in the long history of the language between Jesus’ time and ours. Witty and observant; nerdy, yet keeps the narrative moving. Certainly seems to know his historical stuff.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glinert traces the story of the Hebrew language from the Biblical age to the present, revealing the story of a language which shows astonishing flexibility in its ability to survive and adapt. His focus on this book is very much on the medieval period and he is at pains to emphasize the secular literature (erotic and love poetry, romance,comedy) that thrived alongside the scholarly literature (exegesis, law, grammars etc) with which we usually associate Medieval Hebrew literature. My one complaint would be his unsatisfactory treatment of the Biblical period, so I'm off to read William Chomsky's more thorough treatment of that period in his "Hebrew: the Eternal Language".

[Ben Rothke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people have likely heard the claim that Hebrew is the only ancient language to be in active use today. While speakers of Farsi and Chinese may disagree, Hebrew’s resurgence and resurrection may be the linguistic equivalent of a miracle. From being a peripheral language in far off Israel a little over a century ago, it’s now a vibrant language spoken by millions across different continents.

In a fascinating new book, The Story of Hebrew, Dr. Lewis Glinert, professor of Hebrew Studies at Dartmouth College, provides a history of the Hebrew language from biblical times to today. While written by an Ivy League professor and published by Princeton University Press, this is nonetheless a most readable and highly engaging book.

In addition, knowledge of Hebrew is not needed to enjoy this remarkable book. At Dartmouth, Glinert teaches a class From Genesis to Seinfeld: Jewish Humor and its Roots. As to his dry sense of humor, he has written an entire book about Hebrew, and aside from a few illustrations, not used a single Hebrew character. The truth is that this is not a book about what the Hebrew words mean. Rather it is about what the Hebrew language has meant to the people who have possessed it.

The book tells two stories. First, how Hebrew has been used in Jewish life for the past 3,500 years; how it was left for dead, only to come back. The other story is that of how Jews and Christians have conceived of Hebrew, and invested it with a symbolic power far beyond normal language.

A few of the many questions that Glinert addresses are: how did Hebrew figure into the sense of identity of the Jews, how did that relationship change with the advent of Zionism and their love affair with the Hebrew language, what kept Hebrew from dying out completely, and perhaps most importantly: what can its remarkable story teach about the working of human language in general.

The story of Hebrew starts at the beginning with the chumash. Glinert notes that the chumash tells the history of the Jewish people almost entire in prose, deliberately turning its back on the epic poetry with which the cities of Ugarit, Ur and every other Near Eastern cultures recounted their cosmic beliefs. This use of the Hebrew language created the reality that the spoken language in its ordinary form, that which the patriarchs and matriarchs spoke, formed the basis for today’s use of Hebrew.

This leads to the question: if Moshe Rabenu found himself on Dizengoff Street, could he understand the Hebrew spoken? Glinert believes if you gave him a dictionary and a few minutes to adjust to the accent, he’d be able to take it all in. Since Hebrew now has the same basic vocabulary and word structure as it did 3,500 years ago, with a little adjustment, new Hebrew which was grafted onto its ancient roots, means that an Israeli adult can readily open the chumash and start reading.

Even more remarkable is when Hebrew is contrasted for example to the Old English of Beowulf, written a mere 1,000 years ago. Of the over 3,000 lines of this epic poem, one is hard-pressed to find a single line that is comprehensible to an English speaker today.

In the chapter Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, Glinert interestingly calls the sages of the Talmud linguistic revolutionaries. He meant this in the sense that they saw that to preserve Hebrew, rather than using a different language; their legal and moral teaching employed a simple, even folksy style of Hebrew. By using this new vernacular Hebrew, replete with shared terms from Greek and other languages, the Sages could add life to a language near death. The brilliant foresight of the sages to move the oral law to the Hebrew language, was their planning for the future of the Hebrew language.

The following are the chapters of the book, and here, Glinert provides a fascinating overview of Hebrew and the many areas it touched. The chapters on how Christians embraced Hebrew, often via the Jews they distained, who thought by using it, they would be better able to convert Jews to Christianity.
1. Let There Be Hebrew
2. Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome
3. Saving the Bible and Its Hebrew
4. The Sephardic Classical Age
5. Medieval Ashkenaz and Italy: Sciences, Sonnets, and the Sacred
6. Hebrew in the Christian Imagination, I: Medieval Designs
7. Hebrew in the Christian Imagination, II: From Kabbalists to Colonials
8. Can These Bones Live? Hebrew at the Dawn of Modernity
9. The Hebrew State

For those who thought Hebrew was a shoo-in as the national language of 20th-century Israel, Glinert writes how that was not the case. As late as 1914, most Jews in Israel, even the most ardent Zionists, were skeptical about the future of the new Hebrew language, and the majority were not sending their children to Hebrew-speaking schools. German remained the official language of the international Zionist movement. Other languages that were considered as a stronghold for the future included Yiddish, French, Arabic and even Turkish. Amazingly, within 50 years, Hebrew was fully revived.

My only critique of the book is its brevity. At 250 very readable but all too brief pages, this is a topic that begs for more detail. The last chapter alone, about Hebrew’s resurgence in the modern state of Israel deserves its own full-length book.

Glinert weaves an amazing story here. Both a history of Hebrew, and it’s miraculous (he’s an academic, so doesn’t use terms like that) restoration, is unparalleled in linguistic and sociopolitical history. The story of Hebrew’s resurgence is perhaps the ultimate victory for a long-persecuted people. A mesmerizing book is The Story of Hebrew, and a most worthwhile read.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true masterpiece in every sense. . . I got this book initially because I had an opportunity to hear Lewis Glinert speak and actually discuss several questions on Hebrew linguistics with him over the summer, and I was very impressed not only with his knowledge (which in itself was pretty cool) but also by the idea of Hebrew linguistics - something that had never occurred to me as existing before.
This book is called The Story of Hebrew, and it very much read as a story. I spend a great deal of time reading academic works, especially on Jewish history, and while I’m usually engaged because the topics are of interest to me, they sometimes get a bit dry. The Story of Hebrew had none of that. It was fascinating and engaging, with surprising twists and interesting turns. It felt like a story, following all the elements of a good one. I was thoroughly engaged, and because of that, I recommend this book to both people comfortable with intense academic writing (because this book is full of fascinating and thorough research) and readers looking for a lighter read; it doesn’t read as a dense history book so much as an intriguing story of a language.
I also really appreciated how Dr. Glinert seamlessly wove ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish history and sources to create a full picture of an important language. More than that, I appreciated the respect he used when referring to aspects of Jewish history. I’ve read my fair share of Jewish history books that approach Chazal, Jewish history, and rabbinic approaches with skepticism; while I understand that irreverence is an academic norm, this book felt like a breath of fresh air in that sense.
To conclude this surprisingly long review. . . this book is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. It is both light and thorough, engaging and well-researched. It balances all aspects of Jewish history with respect and care, creating a beautiful and fascinating book that I highly recommend for scholars of Jewish history and the mildly interested alike.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable survey of the entire history of the Hebrew language. Often I wanted the author to go deeper into some historical topics, but overall it was a great overview of all the ways Hebrew has been used, and all the struggles that have taken place over its form and its place in culture, both Jewish and Christian.

I was particularly glad to finally get it straight in my mind who the Masoretes were, and when they sat down and fixed the text of Tanaq. It was later than I understood, circa the 9th century CE.

The book is also good (although again frustratingly brief) on the rebirth of Hebrew in the early 20th century in Israel. The author describes the process both from the academy down, and as a populist enthusiasm that rose from ordinary people up, and perhaps more the latter than the former. He describes recent changes in the development of Hebrew that have only taken place since the 1980s. The whole story is fascinating to me, as a Hebrew speaker and reader, but I think would be readable and understandable by anyone who is interested in language and culture.

I received this as a birthday present from my wife on my 58th birthday. I love my wife. She picked well.

[Leib Mitchell]

4.0 out of 5 stars A linguist's gift.
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is a brilliant book.

***It is probably best described as two things at once:

1. A journey through Jewish history, using the tool of the Hebrew language.

-->All of the conquests are detailed very briefly. (Assyrian. Babylonian. Greek. Persian.) And right on through to the Roman conquest and destruction of the Second Temple.

2. A history of the Hebrew language itself. (Gilnert assumes that we don't know anything about Hebrew--which is not likely for somebody who would pick up this type of book-- and, other than what we find in artifacts and other photos, he doesn't give us a single Hebrew letter.)

-->The Hebrew that people use(d) in everyday life can be one of 6 types.

a. Biblical (including cantillation)
b. Mishnaic
c. Rabbbinic
d. Siddur
e. Hasidic-storytelling
f. Modern

Each of these versions was used at different points in history, and the circumstances and constraints made each version of the language what it was / is.

***Several things immediately come to mind:

1. Eric Hoffer's observation that intellectuals and Men of Words are an extremely powerful force. And more generally, about the tremendous power of the written word (as opposed to the spoken one).

In the case of the Hebrew language, at distant points in history before its revival, it was a tool of everyday people. But, they were not scholars and so their version of the language did not survive. What did survive was the Hebrew idiom of priests and Rabbis.

And the people that brought it back to life were scholars and academics. (There is still clashing between The Academy and those who use Hebrew in the Real World.)

2. Which version of Hebrew was being used / invented at some time depended on the concerns of those people at that time.

In that way, the study of the Hebrew can tell us what were the concerns of people who were using it at that time. (Financial transactions? Medicine? Astronomy? Codification of Jewish law? Popular fiction? Laments? Theological debates?)

3. The diglossia described in this book also has a very long history; The future is the past.

People would use liturgical Hebrew for worship services, and they would speak in the vernacular. That was true as far back as the Babylonian conquest and is true through present times. (This has been my experience in the United States.)

We also know that there is / can be a dramatic Divergence between the written word and the spoken word. And that is something that we could have picked up reading many other popular books on Linguistics. (John McWhorter on the Degradation of Language, for example. Or maybe John DeFrancis on the Chinese-Language, Fact and Fantasy.)

***Another way that the book can be described is as a linguistic history of the mutation of language (and this works for any language, but Hebrew was the specific example of this book).

Hebrew is an extremely suitable tool because of its vast literary corpus and extremely long history.

The author demonstrates that these rigid classifications of types of Hebrew are not always helpful ("Mishnaic"/ "Biblical"/ "Rabbbinic"/ "Modern"). Hebrew has always existed in many intermediate forms. The rabbis of a few centuries ago needed something that was popular and demotic, and so they had to develop forms of Hebrew that appealed to the masses - - in spite of their knowledge of the more "pure" forms of the language.

***Some changes in the Hebrew language were happenstance, and others were functional: Glinert describes the use of the Hebrew language in Andalusian Spain as being infused with a lot of Arabic because it was used for extremely technical purposes. (For which the biblical idiom would not be appropriate.)

1. Because Rashi lived when and where he did, a lot of his glosses used French vocabulary. No reason that it had to be that way, and that it could not have been different.

2. (p. 112) The codifiers of commentaries on the Tanakh/ Talmud and Halacha were Sephardim (Rashi, Maimonides et. al), and they had the goal of being able to create something that people could understand. (Florid Ashkenazi paytanim be damned!) And of course this meant that they had to deal with grammatical detail and consistency.

3. This violent resistance of Ashkenazim to study grammar has its roots in that initial activity, and is still present one thousand years later.

***Other neat little factoids.

1. The original Hebrew script is still used by a tiny group of people--The Samaritans. (All ~800 of them.) What we have now is the Assyrian script.

Also, the original Hebrew calendar is no longer used by Jews. What we have now is Babylonian.

2. The Bible is silent / agnostic about the language that was spoken by people during the events it describes. In the introduction, there are only three of the vaguest hints of the language that people were speaking.

3. (p. 25) The codification of the Bible was a process that took several hundred years. and Rabbis really did have a say in which books were canonized and which ones were not.

4. The oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible are actually quite recent. The Aleppo Codex from the 10th century. And the Leningrad codex from 1008 CE.

5. The author has an interesting thesis (p. 51), with which I concur: A lot of the purpose of some of these obscure mishnayot that are written is not the mishna itself, but to make use of /keep alive the Hebrew terms associated with certain things. (Bameh Madlikin's list of obscure names of permissible candle substrates.)

6. The voweling system of Hebrew was not invented until several hundred years after the destruction of the Second Temple. (And that explains why we read Sifrei Tora'ot with no vowels. They are a more recent invention.)

7. In chapter 7, we are given a proposed mechanism to explain why so much of English and American common law seems to have Chumash ("Old Testament") ballast.

8. There is a lot of discussion about the many attempts to translate a classical Semitic language into local vernacular. And particularly, why the King James version of the Bible has *that* sound. (It's an attempt to be as faithful as possible to the biblical Hebrew.)

***As far as readability: This book is better than most of that are published on university labels-- but, just the same this book is one of those that you might want to only read 15 or 20 pages at a time. (It sat on my shelf for several years, and probably through two or three false starts before I actually finished it.)

********

The author gets toward what I wanted to know (how was the Hebrew language revived) much toward the end of the book, and even then he doesn't really say that much except to tell us that he doesn't have a clear picture of how that happened.

Another problem that I have is that there were no references to books that we could read such as popular fiction written in Hebrew by Hasidim just a couple of hundred years ago.

I'm also not sure what to think about how miraculous it was that this Hebrew language was revived: It happens all the time that people need a language in order to make something happen, and they just create it.

So, we could be talking about Haitians creating Creole which can be written down and understood.

Or, we could be talking about people in Indonesia deciding to create Bahasa Indonesia from some amalgamation of languages.

I know that the exact permutation of circumstances that created Hebrew in the state of Israel was unique, but then the only reason that it is different from the aforementioned examples is because a person never steps into quite the same river twice.

The greatest value of this book was its explanation on what is the difference between types of Hebrew, and the time from which they all came to exist. (And if you talk to anybody who understands some number of these versions, I can tell you firsthand how difficult it is to get a clear and succinct answer as to what are the differences.)

Verdict: The book is just a bit too long. He could have cut 50 pages with no diminishment. (Loss of one star.)

For all of these things, I would recommend the book at the price of about $5 plus shipping.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable, comprehensive survey of the fascinating history of a language that did not go the way of all languages. Rather than fading into oblivion, or becoming merely the academic study of specialists, it regenerated itself, found its voice once more, and became the spoken language of a nation. You don’t need to know Hebrew to appreciate this book. You only need to appreciate a great story.

[Parker Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the history of the Hebrew language. However, sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the individual trees and to miss the forest. The author can be too descriptive and a bit too academic in tone. The chapters are also a little long and it’s easy to miss the overarching main points. Even after reading this, I still have questions about some of the basic terms and concepts because they were never fully explained.

[John Majors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to believe that a 3,000 year old, largely academic, language was resurrected as a spoken language in the early 1900s and adopted by an entire nation. Much to be observed about the power of preserving a national heritage through culture and language.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Story of Hebrew is an intriguing idea: re-tell the story of how a language began thousands of years ago, how it morphed and survived across the millennia, where it currently is as a language, and where it likely is headed. This is a really, really good idea. Which is why I read the book.

The book starts well as it recounts the ancient history of Hebrew. That, really, is why I wanted to read the book, and perhaps it's why the rest of my review of the book is colored negatively. Then again, I maintain, Mr. Glinert strayed from his intent and didn't fix his focus firmly on what he was trying to accomplish.

After a good first-third of the book, the story became more of a summary of Jewish Diaspora power-bases and their differences - interesting enough, but not the purpose of this book. Granted, Jews and the Hebrew language are virtually inseparable, but still, the story of Hebrew got lost during the middle third (or was it half?) of the book. Perhaps there wasn't much to the story of the language during that portion of history, but I came away feeling let-down.

The last third of the book picked up again with the history of the language, and the book sputtered back to life to a rather satisfying finish.

In sum: not a bad book, but bloated with non-language historical rabbit trails.

[Joe Q. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book provides a lay-accessible overview of the history of the Hebrew language. It filled a lot of gaps in my understanding of how Hebrew has been used (and maybe abused) over the centuries.

I would have appreciated a greater focus on the ancient history of Hebrew -- how it is or was distinguished from other Canaanite languages, text evidence from antiquity, more info about how it was supplanted by other languages. To me at least, this would have been more interesting than the Maskilic revival of literary Hebrew.

I was also puzzled that for a book ostensibly about Hebrew, there is actually almost no Hebrew text (except in the form of images of book pages or signs). Actual text excerpts with translations would have greatly enhanced the book, for those of us who know just enough Hebrew to appreciate (for example) rhymes and puns, or recognize familiar verses and prayers. I would imagine that this is the target audience for the book in any case!

[Adam Amster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written. What could have been a dry topic was made fun and engaging. It covered all the topics and more about the story of Hebrew: ancient usage, assimilation of Israelites into Babylonia after conquest by Nebudchunezzer and subsequent adoption of Aramaic, as well as assimilation due to Greek influence. This was followed by a period of 2000 years where Hebrew was used solely as a written and liturgical language. In the late 1800s zionists, namely Ben-Yehuda felt it their mission to bring Hebrew back as a spoken language, and that slowly succeeded. With the state of Israel came a strong push by the government to enforce Hebrew adoption as none of the immigrants spoke Hebrew. This, they thought, would create unity amongst the people. It then goes into to detail about the process of modernizing the language and the need to mint new words. There was care to not adopt too many foreign influences in the words so as to keep the language unique.

[Harris Schwartzreich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything I wanted to know about the history and evolution of a language I love. Takes you from ancient spoken Hebrew and texts; through early Rabbinic prose and prayer-writing; the invention of vowels; the golden age of Hebrew poetry in Spain; scientific and medical translation in medieval Italy; through the enlightenment and the revival of the spoken language. It would be hard for me to recommend this universally because it’s such a niche topic. It’s clearly written enough for the layperson even though it’s pretty academic. My one genuine complaint is that quoted passages are only in transliterated English characters and not also in the original Hebrew. But if you’re interested in the topic it’s a fantastic overview.

[Shai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was an excellent read detailing how the Jewish people were able to hold onto their language for 2000 years of exilic existence and in an effort that could only be described as revolutionary restored it to everyday use in a national context.

I think Gilbert missed an opportunity to talk about an exchange with Rabbi Hirschprung and the Satmar Rav on the status of Hebrew as a language. The Satmar Rav was of the opinion that it was purely a holy language and should not be taught in schools. While Gilbert addresses Haredim and Hebrew, it is for the opposite approach, that the vast majority speak Hebrew in their day to day lives (in Israel)

[Dante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great primer on fascinating linguistic history, and surprisingly readable.

Glinert has done a wonderful job synthesizing millennia of linguistic and cultural history into a brief book that anyone interested in the Hebrew language can read. Glinert presents a compelling narrative of Hebrew's unique social, religious, and political uses through the past two thousand years. Glinert's narration is (nearly) unbiased in its presentation of historical developments, and leaves just enough out to entice readers to explore more about these topics.

This book is well worth the read for anyone interested in this language's incredible history.

[Chris Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the many distinct but connected expressions of Hebrew over 3000 years or so. The book is about language, but that means it is also about belief and identity and politics and creativity.

I met here a number of threads of Hebrew's history that were new to me, as well as explanations for things I knew only in passing. Such a range of topics means there will be controversy or disagreement in interpretation, but Gilnert does not write for the sake of being disagreeable.

Recommended.

[Ralphz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The development Hebrew from the Bible to modern-day Israel is covered in this very interesting book.

What was interesting to learn about Hebrew was how it was essentially "frozen" in time and didn't develop like other languages. Of course it was a "holy" language and there was resistance to using it for everyday use.

Yiddish and Ladino stepped into the breech, along with the languages of the nations that the Jewish diaspora landed. Among these were Germany and Russia.

What was also interesting were the attempts to revive the language and the need to create new words in Hebrew. The experience of this language is very different from English, which is much more fluid and adaptable.

This was a little more academic than I was expecting, but a fascinating take nonetheless.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced history of the language and interesting corrective to the modern narrative that Hebrew died out after the Roman conquest in 70 CE; Gilnert argues that it remained in use and continued to evolve throughout the period between the Roman conquest and 19th century Zionism (which was not synonymous with Hebraism). If anything, he proposes, it only properly died out in the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and never in the Mizrahi world.

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

It amazes me that a book about the Hebrew language does not contain any Hebrew (other than photographs of manuscripts). I wanted to like this more but I never had a sense that the ideas and theories put forth had any foundation other than the author saying so.

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

A very interesting and easy to read book on the history and development of the Hebrew language. Perhaps not for the general reader -- you do need slightly more than a glancing interest in the topic.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most fascinating chapters were the ones on Christian Hebraicists. Was well worth the read, and a fun and interesting lens through which to view the span of Jewish history.

[Laura Boudreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book about the history of Hebrew, and its place in the world today.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic. If you are interested in languages, this is highly recommended. I think I'll read it again this summer!

[Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some languages die and disappear over the passage of time. Others flourish. The use and acceptance of the Hebrew language vacillated greatly over the passage of time. Historical events and efforts to abolish the language are coupled with individuals and religious thought that placed a very high premium on preserving and promoting the language.
Regions throughout the world had their own version of Hebrew that melded and competed against other cultures for dominance. It is an interesting read and the story of Hebrew is intricately interwoven with the history of the Jewish people and eventually, Israel.

[Smitty]

This book is 250 pages and yet still feels like a summary of a much longer treatise. It's astonishing that no one has produced a book like this since William Chomsky in the 1950s. Well researched and insightful, this book is a step in the right direction toward adequately telling this much under-covered story.