Congratulations! Sent from my iPhone
> On May 29, 2014, at 4:47, "Norman Berdichevsky" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Subject: FW: FW: new book ready for publication in June > > subject: new book ready for publication in June. > Modern Hebrew – The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language > > by Norman Berdichevsky (June 2014) > > <image001.jpg> > > > Modern Hebrew: The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language > by Norman Berdichevsky > McFarland & Company > July, 2014 > > Why another book on Israel? I asked myself this question for a long time > before deciding to write Modern Hebrew: The Past and Future of a > Revitalized Language – which I alluded to in three previous New English > Review articles, "Esperanto and Modern Hebrew –“Artificial” Languages that > Came to Life" (February 2014), "From Albert to Arik: There Has Been None Like > Einstein" (December 2013) and "Zohar Argov and the Hebrew Language Gap" (May > 2013). The answer to why write another book materialized from my experiences > over the past four years teaching Modern Hebrew at a major Florida University > and witnessing first hand how the lack of a common language between Israelis > and American Jews is an obvious but overlooked factor in explaining why so > many American Jews are insensitive or unappreciative of the creation of a > modern nation, national literature and spoken idiom that makes Hebrew quite > distinct from the language of ritual prayers recited in the synagogue. > > Many American Jews, in spite of numerous trips to Israel, are wholly unaware > of much of “what makes Israeli society tick,” that it has a vocabulary more > than ten times larger than the classical languages of the Bible, Mishna and > Enlightenment or that all laws, debates in the Knesset, the legal cases in > court, and applications for patents, are in Hebrew. Their view of Israeli > affairs is often considerably biased because it is based on highly selected > and fragmentary extracts of published material translated from Hebrew by the > media. In my introductory courses, at least half of the students were even > unaware that the name for Hebrew in Hebrew is “Ivrit.” > > The instruction of no other language has historically been regarded as so > “dangerous” and the subject of such active persecution. Three generations of > Hebrew teachers and students risked imprisonment and the loss of their > livelihoods in the USSR for carrying on the “underground” Hebrew movement to > learn the language – something that is taken so much for granted by many > Diaspora Jews who commonly associate it with a tedious preparation for their > bar-mitzvah confirmation. Over the past two generations, there has been a > steady decline among American Jews in the cultural and emotional > identification they feel with Modern Hebrew literature, song and dance, > elements that once drew many Jews in the Diaspora close to the Zionist > project and the emergence of a modern national Israeli culture. Nothing > better illustrates why Jewish identity no longer encompasses much of the > sense of solidarity or the intense pride found among the parents and > grandparents of American Jewish university students. > > In the monumental literature dealing with Israel, Zionism and the conflict > between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, relatively little space has been > devoted to the social and political consequences of the epic transformation > of the classical language of the Bible into Modern Ivrit, the national > language of the State of Israel, its everyday vernacular spoken by seven > million people including more than a million Arabs who are increasingly > proficient and better able to participate in the decisions they must make as > Israeli citizens and contribute to the society they increasingly see as their > only future. > > This half of the equation is that Arabs and Jews in Israel do speak the same > language literally and increasingly metaphorically as well. The book explores > the major changes that have occurred over the same past four years among > Israeli Arabs that have witnessed the fratricidal conflict between Hamas and > the Palestinian authority, the growing split between Sunni and Shia Islam in > Iraq and elsewhere, the descent of large parts of the Arab Middle East into > chaos, the gruesome civil war in Syria with the threat of its expansion into > Lebanon, the rejection in Egypt of the Morsi government by fifteen million > demonstrators in the streets appalled by the chaos brought on by the Muslim > Brotherhood and the revolutionary changes in the prospects of Israel’s > buoyant and thriving economy fueled by major new energy sources and the > growing close relations with India and China. > > As a result of these developments, Israeli Arabs are more reluctant to give > up the advantages they enjoy as a result of their knowledge of Hebrew for the > much greater educational opportunity and career advancement this affords them > compared to Arabs elsewhere. They represent the most highly educated cohort > of Arabs integrated into a modern sophisticated economy anywhere. As the day > draws nearer for any final border revision, more and more of them will > undoubtedly express their preference to remain as Israeli citizens no matter > what lip service they have given to the Palestinian cause in the past. This > has become more and more evident with public opinion polls over the past four > years even causing a considerable revision of some of the most pessimistic > assessments made by sociologists on the prospects for better Arab-Jewish > relations in Israel. > > The book traces the historical background, past and current controversies, > challenges and dilemmas facing the Israeli people that stem from the choice > made four generations ago to create a renewed nation of Jews in the Land of > Israel with Hebrew as their national language. The 17 chapters examine how > Hebrew came to function as a role model for other national revivals, how it > overcame the many obstacles to revival as a spoken vernacular and its growing > prestige and importance. It also analyzes the importance of the language for > mutual understanding between Israelis and Diaspora Jews and between Jewish > and non-Jewish Israelis. It is a book dealing primarily with the social and > political use of the language and does not cover literature nor is it another > biography of the pioneer founder of the movement to make Hebrew into a modern > spoken vernacular, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. It is the story of his vision and how > it animated a large part of the Jewish world, gave new confidence and pride > to Jewish youth during the most difficult period of modern Jewish history and > infused Zionism with a dynamic cultural content. The chapters are as follows: > > 1 Modern Hebrew in American Popular Culture > 2 The Magnificent Heritage of Biblical Hebrew Prior to the Modern Language > 3 Modern Hebrew’s Influence on “Minor Language Revivals and Esperanto” > 4 The Three Thousand Year Old Treasury > 5 How Hebrew Became a Modern Language > 6 Do the Israelis Speak Hebrew or Israeli? > 7 The Great Yiddish-Hebrew Rivalry > 8 Negation of the Golah (Exile); Hebraization > 9 Baltic Training Grounds for a Hebrew State > 10 The First Modern Hebrew Textbook With Real National-Cultural Content > 11 Soviet Persecution of Hebrew > 12 Israeli Arab Use of Hebrew > 13 Towards a Hebrew Republic? > 14 Slang and Profanity > 15 The Current Assault on Hebrew at Home; Competition from English > 16 Outlook for Hebrew in the U.K. & U.S. > 17 Epilogue > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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