War of the Languages



The war of the languages (מלחמת השפות; ) was a heated debate in the land of Israel over the language of instruction in the country's new Jewish schools. This "language war" was a cornerstone event in the history of the revival of the Hebrew language.

Background
In 1904, Hebrew was the language of instruction in 6 of the 29 organized schools in the Land of Israel. In 1908, it was decided to establish the first professional post-secondary institution in Israel, from which the Technion later grew. The name chosen for the new institution was Technikum (טכניקום), that 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.

History
In 1913, the German Jewish aid agency , 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 (later, the Technion), which it was sponsoring. 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.

The Haifa City Museum produced an exhibit on the "War of the Languages" curated by Svetlana Reingold, in 2011.