The revival of modern Hebrew

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Who

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Jewish national movement

When

1881 onward

Where

Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine

Hebrew, long used mainly for prayer and study, was revived as a living spoken language from 1881 onward, driven above all by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. It is history's most successful language revival — a dormant tongue reborn as the mother tongue of millions.

Sources

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.