HEBREW IN PALESTINE BEFORE AND AFTER 1882

In this article * it is claimed that a process of revival took place in the use of the Hebrew language in Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century. This process brought about an essential change from the situation applying previously in the use of Hebrew. The process is described here and the mood which brought about its realization is explained, as well as the circumstances which made it possible. "KevivaP '- Tbe Transforming of tbe Hebrew Language into a Principal Language. At the end of the 1880s and during the 1890s something happened in Palestine: a number of children- and this number continued to increase from year to year- began to be educated in new schools, or in old schools which had undergone a change, and later on also in nursery schools which only then came to be founded. What was so special about these schools was that the tuition in them was conducted in Hebrew, and the purpose of the teachers being to eradicate the languages which the children had absorbed from their home environment and supplant them with Hebrew. Children from about the age of four years onwards used to spend long hours at school or nursery school during the course of the day and became accustomed to speaking Hebrew with their teachers and hence also among themselves. As they grew up, Hebrew came to be their principal language. This last phenomenon is not really * This work has been compiled in Britain thanks to The Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, where I stayed in 1981/82, and could use the library and archives of the Kressel Collection. I am also indebted to the British Academy who invited me as their Israeli guest for the first part of that year