Itamar Ben-Avi
Encyclopedia
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda was a Jewish lexicographer and newspaper editor. He was the driving spirit behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the modern era.-Biography:...
. Eliezer is credited with reviving the Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and brought up Itamar to be the first native speaker of what would become Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
. Ben-Avi worked as a journalist (starting with his father's newspaper HaZvi), and as a Zionist activist.
Childhood
Ben-Zion grew up speaking modern Hebrew with his parents, making him the first native speaker of the Hebrew language in over a thousand years. When he was very young, Itamar always wanted someone to play with, but his parents did not want him to speak with the other children who spoke different languages. He made friends with a dog which he called Maher, meaning "fast" in Hebrew. Ben-Zion grew up without any friends, as he was the only child who spoke Hebrew. Growing up, Ben Zion experienced many troubling situations, including the death of many of his siblings by diphtheriaDiphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
(which spread through Jerusalem and killed many children), and the death of his mother. He and his family were also ostracized from the ultra-orthodox
Haredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
community, due to their usage of Hebrew as a day-to-day language. The religious community saw this as sacrilege
Sacrilege
Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense, any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege. It can come in the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things...
because they viewed it as the language of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and prayers, and not for use in "idle chatter."
After his mother's death, his father married his late wife's sister, so Itamar's aunt became his stepmother. After his mother's death, he changed his name to Itamar, as that was the name his parents originally intended to give him. The name Itamar means "Island of Dates" and derives from the Arabic/Hebrew root t-m-r (date or palm tree), which is a symbol of Zionism. As his last name, he used Ben-Avi. Avi (אב"י) is an acronym for Eliezer Ben Yehuda (as written in Hebrew) and also means "my father", so Ben-Avi means "my father's son".
Later life
At the age of 19, Ben-Avi left JaffaJaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
port and set sail for Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where he studied at universities in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He returned to Palestine as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and published many successful newspapers. He was also an ardent Zionist and often took many roles in supporting and spreading the idea of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
He was the chief editor and journalist of "Doar HaYom", the then Hebrew style-twin of the British "Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
", from 1920-1933. In his numerous opinion and commentary articles in "Doar HaYom" he also advocated the widespread use of the International language Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
.
He died in 1943, in NYC doing a posting for the Zionist movement, five years before the establishment of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He had two daughters who went on in their careers to be national radio news readers.
Efforts towards Latinization of Hebrew script
Ben Avi was a fervent and ardent advocate for the usage of a new Latin scriptLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
system, a full alphabet with vowel letters, rather than the current consonantal orthography of Hebrew (with limited matres lectionis) using "squared Assyrian letters". The current Hebrew writing system dates back to the time of Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
the scribe, 500 BCE.
He wrote a Hebrew biography of his father. This biography was titled "AVI" (meaning: my father) and was printed in his own made-up version of Hebrew script
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
, using Latin letters and some variations thereof, to fit the needs of the Hebrew language.
He pioneered and was chief editor of two short lived Hebrew weeklies in reformed Latin script. The first was "ha Savuja ha Palestini" (The Palestinian week, 1928) and the second was "Deror" (Liberty, 1934). Each of the weeklies was published in 17 numbers in total before closing.
See Also
- Itamar Ben CanaanItamar Ben CanaanItamar Ben Canaan is the pen name of Ithamar Handelman Smith, a Jewish writer, publicist, filmmaker and play-writer based in Paris...