WHY HEBREW?

In the second half of the nineteenth century, several Hebrew journals were established, creating a new cross-communal printed public sphere. At the time, Hebrew was merely a language embedded within the two languages of daily communication – spoken Jewish vernacular (Yiddish in Eastern European communities) and the state vernacular. It lacked an active basic vocabulary for many spheres of modern life and was no longer used in everyday or political discussion. In this paper, I investigate the linguistic choice of Hebrew by comparing three of the main nineteenth-century journals – HaMaggid, HaMelitz and HaTzfira. The reasons for using Hebrew were distinct and individual for each journal. Yet, I argue that choosing Hebrew had more indirect, national repercussions: even when it was not the primary rationale for its use, journalistic Hebrew acted as a catalyst for the rise of modern Jewish nationalism.