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Israeli Sign Language, or ISL, is the most commonly used sign language in the deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language.

History
The history of ISL goes back to 1873 in Germany, where Marcus Reich, a German Jew, opened a special school for Jewish deaf children. At the time, it was considered one of the best of its kind, which made it popular with Jewish deaf children from all over the world as well as non-Jews. In 1932 several teachers from this school opened the first school for Jewish deaf children in Jerusalem. The sign language used in the Jerusalemite school was influenced by the German Sign Language (DGS), but other sign languages or signing systems brought by immigrants also contributed to the emerging language, which started out as a pidgin. A local creole gradually emerged, which became ISL.

ISL still shares many features and vocabulary items with DGS, although it is too far apart today to be considered a dialect of the latter.

During the 1940s ISL became the language of a well-established community of Jewish deaf people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Today ISL is the most used and taught sign language in Israel, and serves as the main mode of communication for most deaf people in Israel, including Jewish, Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, and Bedouins. Some Arab, Druze, and Bedouin towns and villages have sign languages of their own.

In addition to ISL, there is also Hebrew manually coded language used as a tool to teaching deaf children the Hebrew language, and for communication between deaf and hearing people.

The Language
- Pronominal system

-pronouns: use different hand shapes for possessive, reflexive, and object pronouns. groups use different hand-shapes (two of them, three of us).

-uses space as point of reference

-word order: follows function not syntax. first is the informational anchor (topic or background) then the comment (event transpired or new information). (cite: Meir book)

-Borrows from other languages, fingerspelling from Hebrew and full signs from other Sign languages (example: French) brought over from immigrants.

-(pic of hand shapes and alphabet)

Use
There are About 10,000 native speaker currently using ISL and around 700,000 Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in Israel today (2019) (Cite: Schuster et al). currently the institute for the Advancement of Deaf Persons provide many resources for Deaf and HoH people in Israel, such as informing people of their rights and providing interpreters and other forms of accessibility. Deaf and Hard of Hearing people can serve in the Israeli Defence Force. boarding school of the deaf, first deaf school in Israel. always an interpreter on the news and for important events.

Research
-current work in ISL

-Work in ASBSL