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Should Israeli Science Speak Hebrew?Clash Looming Over Widespread Use of English in Academia
By Nathan Jeffay
Published April 13, 2012, issue of April 20, 2012.
TEL AVIV — Israeli scholarship is widely cited the world over. But if state linguists have their way, much of that research
will become a whole lot less accessible to those who don’t speak Hebrew.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language is asking the Education Ministry to require universities to use less English —
the language in which many graduate-level courses are taught, and in which much of Israel’s scientific research isconducted.
“We would like to see a situation where teaching must be in Hebrew for all courses, with only very particular
exceptions,” such as those for foreign students, Gabriel Birenbaum, a senior researcher at the Academy, told the
Forward.
Much like France’s famed Académie Française, the Academy of the Hebrew Language, is in charge of developing the
language and encouraging its correct use. What makes Israel’s Academy, the AHL, unusual is that it is essentially the
same body that brought English into use.
In 1890 Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the key architect of Modern Hebrew, established the Hebrew Language Committee to
oversee the revival of the ancient tongue. After Israel became a state, the government transformed the committee into
the AHL. The government-funded body’s 23 members and 15 advisers are scholars, writers, poets and translators.
Education Minister Gideon Saar, who chairs the Council for Higher Education, which is in charge of the country’s
universities, has asked the council to come up with a position statement on language use in universities.
And this has many academics worried.
“Hebrew is the language of the Jewish People, but if you write your thesis in Hebrew, it is buried,” said Yehuda Band,
who heads the chemistry department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Last fall, Band had informed postgraduate
students that English was to be the default language for written work.
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He added that pushing students to write in English not only helps them to get their theses read and published, but also
benefits their career trajectory. “A student who can’t write in English is severely limited — it’s the language of science,”
Band said.
The new battle is essentially round two of a war fought a century ago. In the early 20th century, when the Hebrew
language was newly revived, leaders of the Zionist community campaigned to get all educational establishments in what
is now Israel using it.
When the Zionist movement was established in the late 19th century, it was not immediately clear that Hebrew would
be the language of Jews in Palestine. Theodor Herzl, the movement’s leader, initially thought it would be German. When
pioneers arrived, many just spoke only the language they brought with them — often Yiddish — and it was not until the
second aliyah, between 1904 and 1914, that Hebrew started to become dominant.
When the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology — prepared to open in Haifia 1913, it had planned to operate in
German because its leaders said that Hebrew simply didn’t have the words to teach science. But the school, caving to
pressure from ideologically driven students and Zionist leaders, adopted Hebrew as its language of study.
Today, though, postgraduate courses at Technion are most commonly taught in English. The Forward contacted all
seven Israeli universities for this article and all confirmed that they had classes taught and coursework assessed in
English.
Although the trend toward English is mostly at the postgraduate level and primarily in the natural, physical and
computer sciences, English is also being used more widely in undergraduate studies and in humanities courses at all
levels. In most institutions, there is an unwritten understanding that lectures, classes and seminars switch to English
when there is a presence of one or more non-Israelis, though the natural sciences faculty at Ben-Gurion recently
formalized this rule.
At Tel Aviv University seven humanities undergraduate programs — including archaeology, Jewish history and East
Asian studies — include courses and related assignments in English. And the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
recommends that students complete at least one course taught and assessed in English. The school’s rector, Sarah
Stroumsa, told the Forward that she would like to see the recommendation changed to a requirement.
In the so-called “Language War” of the early 20th century, some prominent scientists were among the campaigners for
Hebrew-only. But a century later, the scientific community is almost unanimously against this approach. Should the
Education Ministry demand that scientific institutions and university programs scale back on English, a clash between
government and academia is likely to ensue.
“I’m unabashedly Zionist and believe in Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and all that that entails with
symbols and language,” said Moshe Koppel, a Likud party member, and a computer scientist at Bar-Ilan University in
Tel Aviv. “But since all the [computer science] publications are in English and we expect students to publish their
theses, it would be double the work for them to write it in Hebrew and translate to English.”
As far as the AHL is concerned, the gains of a century ago are simply being lost. “In those days you could understand
them [the Technion board in 1913], as it really was the beginning of Hebrew’s revival and many words were lacking, butthey managed,” the Academy’s Birenbaum, said. “But today, when Hebrew is much richer, we have this deterioration
toward English.”
He insisted that the AHL is “not against English,” but believes that its use must be limited to “maintain respect for our
own language.”
Moshe Vigdor, director-general of the Council for Higher Education, which is looking into the subject for the education
minister, told the Forward that his organization aimed to find a “real pragmatic balance.” He indicated that the council
may be leaning toward some limitations on English. “We want to see that master’s degrees [theses] will be in Hebrew
and with [some] English or translation to English, if necessary,” he said.
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talknic +1
Ben-Gurion’s Band dismisses the idea that the increased use of English has put in danger the gains made in 1913. “In
the early 1900s, the language was not established in the country,” he said. Today, Hebrew is the language of the
country. There’s no question about that, and our decisions are not going to change that.”
Contact Nathan Jeffay at [email protected]
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The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the
Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately
respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique
are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate
comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.
COMM ENTS (38)
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· 1 week ago
Rather myopic... apart from having to invent a host of new Hebrew words for Israeli discoveries, which in itself is fine,
there'd also be a need to invent Hebrew words for new English words that develop and new Hebrew words for Latin
naming conventions.
Then everything must be translated from Hebrew into English in order to relate it to the rest of the scientific world,
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100reader +2
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with new English words being invented for new Israeli discoveries named only in Hebrew
With Israel's propensity for being the only country in the world with its unique interpretations of International Law, the
UN Charter, Conventions, UNSC resolutions, why stop at science? Include International law. International relations.
The arts. Airline pilots. Air traffic controllers
Why stop there? Foreign languages should all be taught in Hebrew. Isolate Israel completely. Then Israel can truly
complain that 'no one understands us'
5 replies · active 1 week ago
· 1 week ago
I would agree that an aggressive version of a Hebrew "Académie Française" is ludicrous. But then so is your
polemic..
But not to worry, this is a non-issue.
· 1 week ago
Yours?"it does not help by moving the argument from one of appropriateness of the criticism to attacks on thecriticizer. "
You first agree. Then move the argument to an attack on the criticizer.
· 1 week ago
Talcknic don't you have anything better to do than spend time trying to bully people into agreeing with your
nonsense?
· 1 w eek ago
Address the points raised... thx shriber5 ...."The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requiresthat all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjectsof the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personalinvective are not."
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· 1 week ago
How is commenting that your polemic is as ludicrous as the the attempt by the AHL an attack, personal or
otherwise, on either the AHL or you. In fact, as several others have commented, this will be a non-issue and
you that neither one of us will need to worry about.
· 1 week ago
@talknic: You're right: your view is myopic and I'll also add hostile and unwelcome.
· 1 week ago
Well of course it's hostile. Take a look at the hysterical blog in which he/she/it demonizes israel for anything and
everything. Vile.
1 reply · active 1 week ago
· 1 week ago
Odd you haven't actually challenged anything Snr Grolman. Instead, you make accusations you can't actually
substantiate.
"hysterical blog in which he/she/it demonizes Israel for anything and everything." Only for what Israel has done
and continues to do and by which it demonizes itself. You could challenge what is on the blog. Sans abuse, falseaccusations, lies. Think you're up to it?
BTW .... I await a similar criticism of JH Miasku's post
· 1 week ago
This is a very interesting issue. In my field, astronomy, very few countries have enough people that it would make
sense to only communicate to people within the country. And, most people reading the astronomical papers writtenby Israelis will be non-Israelis, so it is important to communicate in a language that the larger community will
understand. This is true for other languages too, like Russian, French, Chinese, or Hindi, since, in the small
astronomical community, English is the only language that is universally understood.
On the other hand, new words and phrases are constantly being created in science — which enrich the language —
and languages that are not used for science are left out. After a while it will become impossible to discuss science in
a language that lacks the appropriate vocabulary. How would you discuss the fireball model for Gamma Ray Bursts
(GRBs) in a language like Bengali (6th most spoken language), which lacks the vocabulary to express these
concepts?
My view is that preserving a linguistically diverse globe is a worthwhile goal, so it makes sense to try to keep
languages like Hebrew up-to-date in terms of scientific vocabulary. However, realistically, most science is going to be
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g_jochnowitz +10
done in English.
3 replies · active 1 week ago
· 1 week ago
Quite and well put JH Miasku .
· 1 w eek ago
@talknic You misunderstand me. I think it is important that scientific discovery continues multilingually, in
English certainly, but also in Hebrew. Israel has a prestigious history of science in both languages — and even
though this is difficult to maintain, the effort is ultimately worthwhile.
From glancing at your website, which Mr. Grolman pointed out, I suspect that your are not particularly
interested in this issue. Instead, you probably spend your time lurking around Jewish-themed websites, likethe Forward, trying to incite against Israel in any way you can.
· 1 week ago
Please read carefully ... " ...new Hebrew words for Israeli discoveries, which in itself is fine, there'd also be a
need to invent Hebrew words for new English words that develop and new Hebrew words for Latin naming
conventions" on this you seem to agree.
However, what is being proposed goes a lot further. From the article:"....if state linguists have their way, much of that research will become a whole lot less accessible tothose who don’t speak Hebrew .... The Academy of the Hebrew Language is asking the EducationMinistry to require universities .to use less English.... “We would like to see a situation where. teachingmust be in Hebrew for all courses, with only very particular exceptions,” ..... "..this has manyacademics worried":
"trying to incite against Israel in any way you can" Do you also falsify your work in astronomy? Where
Israel purposefully disregards its obligations to the Law, the UN Charter & its own declaration and by doing
so places civilians in danger, it is quite deserving of criticism.. Especially from those in whose name it
exists.
· 1 week ago
Once when I was visiting Israel, cousins of mine took my wife and me to a mall. There I saw a young mommy,
daddy, and little boy. They were speaking Chinese, which I know because I taught in China in 1984 and 1989. I
spoke to them in Chinese and learned the mommy and daddy were both physicians who had come to Israel to study
esoteric specialties. The classes they took were in English. They wouldn't have come to Israel had the courses been
taught in Hebrew. The little boy, on the other hand, spoke Hebrew perfectly.
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I had a wonderful time translating from Hebrew to Chinese in a conversation between them and my cousins, one of
whom didn't speak English.
· 1 week ago
Given that English Universities are trying to boycott Israeli ones, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up conductingexperiments in Hebrew and Chinese.
· 1 w eek ago
I'm just curious, does anyone know how the French, Russians, Germans, Japanese, Chinese (all countries with very
strong national-linguistic identities) deal with this issue? Do their graduate schools teach predominantly in English?
This doesn't appear to be a problem unique to Israel.
2 replies · active 4 days ago
· 6 days ago
I Know that the French teach in French but publish in English more and more and this exact same debate has
been occurring there.
· 4 days ago
In a nutshell, they do not deal with this issue easily -- it is a real debate in many places. In French-language
Canadian institutions, certainly, there is no consensus on how to deal with this issue. Graduate schools teach
almost entirely in French in those institutions, but many publish papers in English.
· 1 week ago
This aspect does not need regulation: if one wants to write and publish his/her paper in Hebrew, let that be! if one
wants to write and publish his/her paper in English, let that too be! The only thing is for tutors to make the student
aware of the consequences. Simple: and informed choice. Is there anything better?
· 1 week ago
Sure, lets copy the French, what could go wrong.
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· 1 w eek ago
'Should Israeli Science Speak Hebrew?'
Go for it. I'm 100% for this idea.
· 1 week ago
Israeli scientists speak Hebrew and English and Russian. What matters is the science not the language used to
make it.
Still Israeli scientists and I know some do speak Hebrew on and off the job.
1 reply · active 4 days ago
· 4 days ago
Of course. Everyone speaks Hebrew (except to non-Hebrew-speakers of course); it's a question of in what
language one publishes, and teaches. It is not an easy issue by any means.
· 1 week ago
Who is this "talknic" who is trying to dictate what people say here?
If you want to become a dicatator go to Cuba talknic or Venezuela. Just get the hell out of here.
6 replies · active 4 days ago
· 1 week ago
Who is this shriber5 who, rather than adhere to the comment policies, instead derails, makes false accusations
and tells people to" get the hell out of here"?
Meanwhile, the issue is not whether or not Israeli scientists 'speak' Hebrew, English or Russian on or off the job.
It's about the adoption of Hebrew as the primary language for all education including science, using English "with
only very particular exceptions". One of Israel's official languages is Arabic is it not??
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· 1 week ago
The official languages of Canada are English and French, yet except for the small handful of francophone
institutions, the language of instruction at university is English. Are you saying that all Canadian universities
should teach its courses both in English and French?
· 1 week ago
You can read what I was saying. It's still there.
Nice of you to bring Canada to the table. It has two languages and except for the small handful of
francophone institutions, they all instruct in English, one language. Citizens are treated equally.
· 1 week ago
I see
Therefore do you believe that Israel should use Hebrew in all of its institutions - except for the small
handful of Arabic language schools?
· 1 week ago
LOL.. If you'd seen, you wouldn't be trying to put your straw in other peoples mouths.
· 4 days ago
"Except for the small handful of francophone institutions" -- what are you talking about? We have
English- and French-language tertiary institutions, roughly in proportion to the population. French-
language colleges and universities are not some kind of exception to the rule, and all of them instruct inFrench. Actually, this very same debate has been quite a hot one among French-language universities in
Canada.
· 1 week ago
Talknic is trying to monopolize the discussion.
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· 1 week ago
"“Hebrew is the language of the Jewish People, but if you write your thesis in Hebrew, it is buried,” said Yehuda
Band, who heads the chemistry department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Last fall, Band had informed
postgraduate students that English was to be the default language for written work"
This is true of most languages with few speakers.
Danish, Dutch and even French scientists often make sure that their work is published in English so it can reach a
wider audience.
This doesn't mean that they speak English at home.
This is an artificial controversy.
It used to be said (as a kind of joke) that Hungarians (probably Hungarian Jews) wrote some of the best studies in
psychoanalysis. No one was sure though because very few Psychoanalysis outside Hungary read Hungarian.
Bottom line, there will always be a few international languages in which scientific work is done. Centuries ago it wasLatin.
Then it used to be German, English, French (and sometime Russia during the cold war) and one or two other
European languages. Now it's mostly English that is used as a kind of Lingua Franca.
MOdern Hebrew has created one of the richest literatures in the world and for that alone it should be proud.
.
2 replies · active 6 days ago
· 1 week ago
Some seem to have trouble understanding the issues relating to countries whose language has, at the most, 7-8
million speakers versus one with hundreds of millions.
· 6 days ago
The issue is not what people speak at home.
Hebrew is not an International language...
"Now it's mostly English that is used as a kind of Lingua Franca" EXACTLY....
· 6 days ago
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Bill 0
"The issue is not what people speak at home."
It is one important issue out of a number of other important issue.
The language of home, the language of the public square (both the legal and the marketplace place language), the
language of government , the language of poets and novelist are important issues.
The language of science like the language of the marketplace is Hebrew along with some important world language
like English.
Both business people and scientists need to communicate with their counterparts in other countries and languages.
As long as the language of home and public sphere (especially the later) is and remains Hebrew there is no reason
to fear the erosion of Hebrew.
I was reading that more than 250 books of poetry and 350 novels are published in Israel every year. Israelis buy more
than 10 millions books a year.
Not bad for such a small country.
Long may it continue.
2 replies · active 4 days ago
· 5 days ago
"The language of science like the language of the marketplace is Hebrew"
MFA website says otherwise
· 4 days ago
Sounds like you are reading it wrong.
· 3 days ago
I would like to see an enrichment of Hebrew--one Israeli friend of mine has told me that she is appalled by the tinyworking vocabulary of the average Israeli. The language needs to grow, but I doubt that scientific fields are the ones
that would help enrich the working vocabulary of the average Israeli.
A good friend of mine some years ago, a Swede who had gotten his PhD at a technical university in Sweden, told me
that he had had the option of writing his dissertation in Swedish or in English. He said that virtually all the students
wrote in English; they had to in order to participate in their fields in any meaningful way. Sweden, which is larger than
Israel by just over a million people, is simply not a large enough community to support a technical language.
Heck, in fifty years we may be asking our students to write their dissertations in Mandarin, but as of today, English
is the ONLY way to go in technical fields. Israel profits from and has an enormous impact on world science; that
would be greatly diminished if Israel opts to Hebraize the sciences.
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