Hebrew is Israel’s national language and was revived as a modern spoken language.
Hebrew had remained important for Jewish prayer, scripture, scholarship, and literature for many centuries, but it was not generally used as an everyday community language in the same way as it is today. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, activists promoted its revival as a spoken language in Palestine.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is strongly associated with this revival. He helped develop new vocabulary and advocated Hebrew-only education and household use. Modern Hebrew drew on Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew while adding terminology for modern life.
Hebrew became one of the official languages of Mandatory Palestine in 1922. In modern Israel, it is the principal state language. Arabic also has a special status under Israeli law, so Hebrew’s national role should not be confused with exclusive use in every community or institution.