Giveret
Chen-Chen

ola Ben-Yehuda Wittman must rank in his vision of making Hebrew a living language.
"We were his guinea-pigs, his private army and
as one of the youngest nonagenari-
ans ever. An agile and lucid lady who his laboratory," Ms. Wittman says. "The reason
still has a spring to her step, it is hard we came into the world was to spread Hebrew as
to believe she is a piece of living his- a spoken language. We weren't allowed to go out
tory, the only living child of Eliezer of the house for fear of being contaminated by an-
Ben-Yehuda, the man largely re- other language. We were, in effect, prisoners."
When their father brought them a cat and a
sponsible for the revival of the He-
dog, they became "the first animals that knew He-
brew language.
Born Eliezer Perelmann in Lithua- brew." Their servant, Salma, was the first Arab
nia in 1858, Mr. Ben-Yehuda was woman to speak Hebrew in Jerusalem, and even
sent to a yeshiva after his father died taught it to the younger Ben-Yehuda children.
Mr. Ben-Yehuda's first child, journalist Ha-
when Eliezer was 5. However, he withdrew from
an observant lifestyle and in 1878 went to Paris mar Ben-Avi, was to become the first native-born
Hebrew-speaking child in modern times, and the
to study medicine.
Eliezer became increasingly influenced by the family as a whole was the first to speak only He-
Hibat Zion Movement, which called for a return brew since the destruction of the Second Tem-
to Eretz Yisrael and a revival of spoken Hebrew. ple.
Ms. Wittman recalls how her father tried to
The following year he began to publish articles
advocating Jewish settlement in Palestine. It was reach an accommodation with religious authori-
ties, many of whom were offended by the holy
one such piece, published in the Hebrew-language
journal Hashachar, in which he first wrote under tongue used for everyday, secular conversation.
Mr. Ben-Yehuda offered to return to synagogue,
the pen-name Ben-Yehuda.
put on tefillin and observe
In 1881, he moved to Pales-
mitzvot if they accepted the He-
tine with his wife Dvora, set-
brew language for everyday
tling first in Jaffa and then in
use. No agreement was ever
Jerusalem, where he taught,
reached.
edited a succession of Hebrew
By the time Mr. Ben-Yehu-
journals and went on to create
da died in 1922, there were
the 16-volume Dictionary of the
many Hebrew schools and the
New and Old Hebrew Lan-
language was by being spoken
guage. First published in 1910,
throughout Israel.
it became the standard refer-
So steadfast was Mr. Ben-
ence source for daily use of the
Yehuda in his determination to
Hebrew language.
use Hebrew as the only means
Dola was named after Mr.
of communication that he
Ben-Yehuda's first child, Dvo-
GIDEON KEREN
would refuse to set foot in a
ra.
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Jewish school or hotel where it
When Mr. Ben-Yehuda's
was not used. He returned an
first wife, Dvora died, he asked
invitation, printed in English,
her sister, Hemda, for her hand
from British High Commissioner Sir Herbert
in marriage and her committinent to help him
continue his life's work. She joined him six months Samuel, accepting it only once it had been sent
back again in Hebrew.
later, their first child was named Dvora.
In 1890 Mr. Ben-Yehuda founded the Hebrew
The girl had difficulty saying "Dvora" and said
"Dola" instead. She died when still a child. When Language Committee, responsible for filling in
the 10th of Mr. Ben-Yehuda's 11 children was the near 2000-year gap in Hebrew vocabulary.
Using a multitude of dictionaries, he tried to for-
born, she inherit the name Dola.
Ms. Wittman makes it clear that no languages mulate the missing words and refused to use non-
apart from Hebrew were spoken in her childhood Hebrew expressions. Although most of the words
he "discovered" entered the Hebrew lan-
home. 'That would have been the worst
Top left:
guage, there were exceptions. Some
thing possible," she exclaims. "As it was,
the only language we knew was He- Dola Ben-Yehuda as a which did not make it were the makolit
young woman.
(gramophone); sach-rahok (telephone);
brew, so we couldn't communicate with
tsiburit (bus); colbo (supermarket); and
the people on the street, anyway. They
Bottom left:
spoke the language of the countries they Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: machaah (check).
Despite coming from an Ashkenazi
came from, or if they had been in Eretz Hebrew and nothing but
background, Mr. Ben-Yehuda used a
Yisrael for a generation or longer, they
Hebrew.
mizrachi (often erroneously labeled
spoke Yiddish or Arabic."
Now, Ms. Wittman speaks English, French and Sephardi) accent as he believed it to be closer to
Hebrew's Semitic roots. He insisted on pro-
German as well as some Russian and Arabic.
nouncing the guttural ayin and chet and the hard
The one language she specifically did not learn
was Yiddish, which was "considered the sound of reish.
It goes without saying that Dola Ben-Yehuda
death at home." It transpires that Eliezer Ben-
Yehuda, who naturally was a Yiddish speaker, led a rather isolated existence. She only started
was afraid there was not enough room for the two going to school when she was 10 —because until
languages to co-exist together in Eretz Yisrael, es- then no Hebrew-language schools were in
pecially as by the time he was living in Palestine, Jerusalem. When the girls were older and a
matchmaker brought two boys for Dola and her
Yiddish was much more widely used.
While Hebrew was used in secular literature sister, their father was less concerned about their
both in Eretz Yisrael and in the Diaspora, it had professions than if they would speak only Hebrew
not been spoken outside the synagogue for near- at home and if they intended to remain in Eretz
Yisrael
ly 2,000 years. Ben-Yehuda considered it his mis-
Now widowed, Dola Ben-Yehuda Wittman,
sion to make Hebrew a living — not just a
liturgical or literary — language once again. To (who no longer allows photos of herself), lives in
achieve his aims, he was fervent in his beliefs and a suite in the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, where she
absolutely ruthless in the application of his meth- is known by the staff as "Giveret Chen-Chen," be-
cause she uses Ben-Yehuda's word for thank you,
ods.
Mr. Ben-Yehuda's children were instrumental chen-chen instead of todah.

Eliezer
Ben-Yehuda's
last living child
leads a quiet life
in Israel.

.

.

❑

137