Language Information
Modern Hebrew is the official language of Israel. This revived language has 9 million speakers (data of 2014) but the number is not just native speakers (around 5 million) but includes fluent and non-fluent speakers as well.
1500 years after the Biblical Hebrew stepped out of the main stream of Jewish languages, during the mid-19th century the first efforts were made to revive Hebrew as a everyday language. One man who played a major role in these efforts was Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922), who was the first to make exclusive use of Hebrew in his home, and encouraged the use of Hebrew among others, as well as its use in schools.
Today Hebrew is spoken by some 5 million people mainly in Israel, where it is an official language along with Arabic. and a further 2 million people speak the language in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Panama, the UK and USA.
IU offers Modern Hebrew courses of multiple levels. Please check out the information posted on the website of Borns Jewish Studies Program.
| Department | Borns Jewish Studies Program |
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