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On of the early zionists was Eliezer ben Yehudah (1858-1922), who is credited with the restoration of Hebrew as a modern language. When he moved to Jerusalem, Ben-Yehuda became a teacher at the Alliance School, and with his efforts, became the first institution where some courses were taught entirely in Hebrew.

By the age of twelve he had been studying in Hebrew for nine years and had read large portions of the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud. His parents hoped he would become a rabbi, and sent him to a yeshiva. Upon graduation he went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne University. Among the subjects he studied there were history and politics of the Middle East, but the one that had the most lasting effect was Hebrew - specifically, his advanced Hebrew classes taught in Hebrew.

In 1882, he son Itamar Ben-Avi was born. He got his wife Deborah to agree to raise Itamar as the first all-Hebrew speaking child in modern History. Ben-Yehudah had to invent words for household objects that did not exist in Biblical or prayer-book Hebrew, such as: ice-cream, omellete, towel, and bicycle.

Only if the younger generation would begin to speak Hebrew with ease, would the revival of this ancient language succeed. At the Alliance Isralite Universelle School in Jerusalem, students were from different Jewish communities around the world, and Hebrew was the only language they had in common. Ben-Yehudah made the most of the situation, and began to teach Hebrew using a direct system (Hebrew-only without translations to or from other languages). The students soon began chatting with each other about daily needs, such as food, drink, and social activities.

After a few years of writing articles in the local paper, Hahavatzelet, he began to publish his own newspaper Hatzvi, in 1884, to serve as an instrument for teaching adults, both via its content and its language. Ben-Yehuda also used his paper as a means to introduce new words which hitherto were missing, such as: newspaper, soldier, fashion and many others.

For the need of standardization, he also needed to create a dictionary a found a language academy. Ben-Yehuda founded “Va’ad HaLashon”, the predecessor of the Hebrew Language Academy. He had to become a scientific lexicographer; the results of hisarduous labours, working sometimes 18 hours a day, culminated in his “Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew.” In 1910 he published the first of six volumes, but the ultimate edition completed by his second wife and son was 17 volumes.

In 1922, the British mandate authorities recognized Hebrew as the official language of the Jews in Palestine. This culiminated in his life=long dream being fulfillled, but one month later, he died from tuberculosis which had plagued him numerous years. This was the first time in all of human history whre a language that had ceased to be spoken in ancient times, came back to life.

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