If We Lose Hebrew, We Lose Ourselves

We live in a miraculous time where the Hebrew language, once nearly lost to history as a spoken tongue, thrives on the streets of Tel Aviv, the pages of Israeli literature, and in Jewish households around the world. But in the era of globalization, social media and slang, its vitality is eroding. 

As a Hebraist and Semitic linguist, I have spent my life immersed in the study and preservation of the Hebrew language. Yet, I grow increasingly concerned. Not by Hebrew’s ability to adapt or evolve, but by the notion that its role in our lives is being taken for granted. 

Hebrew has always been more than a language. It is the lifeblood of our shared identity, a never-ending thread that connects Jews across continents, cultures and centuries. 

But, today, the linguistic roles are quickly reversing.

With the introduction of foreign slang, popularized by meme culture, Hebrew changes faster every year. We hear words like “start-up,” “weekend,” and “feedback,” dropped into everyday sentences where perfectly good Hebrew alternatives already exist. 

Of course, the occasional borrowing of foreign terms is nothing new. Hebrew itself didn’t change much over the last 1,700 years. Instead, it was influenced by Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Arabic, French, and now English. Even our scriptures and Talmud are full of words in Greek, Latin, and Old Persian. For languages in constant contact with other civilizations, this is natural.

A spoken language doesn’t stand still, it develops and evolves from generation to generation while the heart of the language stays the same. In fact, books about historical linguistics show us that, every 400 years or so, languages can change so dramatically that they nearly become new languages altogether. But what we see now is different: not adaptation, but erosion. 

The threat is far from the introduction of new words. It is when foreign words eclipse existing Hebrew terms for the very same concepts, often at the expense of Hebrew syntax — when adjectives such as ‘super’ or words like ‘once’ are unnecessarily inserted into Hebrew sentences. This substitution dilutes the very cultural fabric that defines us. 

If Hebrew becomes optional, ornamental, or replaceable, so too does that heritage. Instead of complacency we need evolution. We need to adapt to what happens in the media to ensure Hebrew never stands still, and more importantly, that it never moves in reverse. 

This is precisely the role of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. As President, I am deeply honored to be a part of this tireless work protecting, preserving, and evolving the Hebrew language, ensuring that it will always be a defining characteristic of our collective identity.  

Formally established in 1953, the Academy has coined over 130,000 new Hebrew words, from “heznek” for start-up to “henpek” for exit, and has done so in a way that reflects the history, structure, and culture of the Hebrew language. Our goal has never been to enforce usage, but to enrich the lexicon, empower educators, and provide the tools for Hebrew to flourish in every industry and walk of life.

We study ancient texts to further advance the scholarship of the Hebrew language. We collect and preserve through initiatives like the Historical Dictionary Project, initiated about fifty years ago. We are planning the first-ever museum of the Hebrew language which will be built in Jerusalem’s National Quarter and will tell the story of this stunning language from ancient scrolls to modern classrooms — to make Hebrew not just a subject of study, but a source of national pride and cultural inspiration.

But our work must go further, and we can’t do it alone. 

The future of Hebrew depends not only on scholars and institutions, but on all of us. Schools must prioritize the teaching of classical and modern Hebrew as central to Jewish identity. The Israeli media must avoid endorsing the adaptation of unnecessary foreign terms by reminding us that we have these concepts in Hebrew expressions of our own. And parents must understand that speaking and valuing Hebrew at home is an act of cultural preservation and linguistic survival.

Let me be clear: the threat is not that Hebrew will disappear entirely. I am an optimist. Hebrew will always be at the heart of who we are. But what we risk is the gradual hollowing out of its depth, its elegance, its power to connect past, present, and future. If we allow Hebrew to become just another language, we will wake up one day and find that we no longer fully understand who we are.

We are the only nation with the same language that has existed for over 3,000 years. We are the only people in the world who still read and write in the same language as our ancient, sacred texts, the same words that Isaiah and Maimonides used, the same roots that bind modern poetry to biblical prophecy. There is no parallel in any other language. 

Hebrew is not a relic. It is a living miracle.

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Aharon Maman is a Hebraist and Semitic linguist, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and President of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.