War of the Languages

In 1904, Hebrew was the language of instruction in 6 of the 29 organized schools in the Land of Israel.{{cn| reason = Both language use and location name. It might be appropriate to use the name the Jewish minority called it in this context, but needs attribution. |date=May 2025}} In 1908, it was decided{{who|date=May 2025}} to establish the first professional post-secondary institution in Israel,{{clarify| reason = Precisely define where this means, and give attribution for the name. |date=May 2025}} from which the Technion in Haifa later grew. The name chosen for the new institution was Technikum ({{langx|he|טכניקום}}), which was meant to educate and train skilled workers (work managers, technicians, assistant engineers). In addition, a school with two majors, a technical major and a practical major, was to be established alongside it.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

In 1913, the German Jewish aid agency {{Interlanguage link|Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden|de}}, which had maintained schools for Jewish immigrants in Palestine since 1905, sought to establish German as the language of instruction at the first technical high school, the Technikum, in Haifa which it was sponsoring.Spolsky, Bernard, and Elana Shohamy (2001). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=NEulLJm9dqQC&pg=PA169 The Penetration of English as Language of Science and Technology into the Israeli Linguistic Repertoire: A Preliminary Inquiry]", in: Ulrich Ammon (Ed.), The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. {{ISBN|311016647X}}. p. 167-176; here: p. 169.Kremer, Arndt (January 30, 2015). "[http://m.bpb.de/apuz/199904/brisante-sprache-deutsch-in-palaestina-und-israel?p=all Brisante Sprache? Deutsch in Palästina und Israel]" {{in lang|de}}. Section "Frühe Siedlungen, erste Kontroversen". Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. www.bpb.de. Retrieved 2016-10-05. This sparked a public controversy between those who supported the use of German and those who believed that Hebrew should be the language spoken by the Jewish people in their homeland. The issue was not just ideological, because until then, Hebrew was primarily a liturgical language and lacked modern technical terms.[http://www.vosizneias.com/49624/2010/02/17/israel-how-german-built-the-hebrew-language How German built the Hebrew language]

The Haifa City Museum produced an exhibit on the "War of the Languages" curated by Svetlana Reingold, in 2011.{{cite news |last1=Parasczczuk |first1=Joanna |title=With words, not weapons |publisher=The Jerusalem Post |date=25 March 2011|id={{ProQuest|860862075}} }}

{{portal| history | language }}

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• Anti-Yiddish sentiment
• Battalion of the Defenders of the Language
• Culture of Israel
• Education in Israel
• Jewish languages
• Languages of Israel

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• [http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/collections/israel-collection/language_war/Pages/default.aspx War of the Languages]

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Category:Jews and Judaism in Ottoman Palestine

Category:Hebrew language

Category:Linguistic controversies

Category:History of the German language

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