Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman in 1858 in Luzhki, in today's Belarus. He was convinced that a nation needs its own land and its own spoken language. In 1881 he settled in Jerusalem with his wife Devora and decided to speak only Hebrew at home. Their son Ben-Zion, later known as Itamar Ben-Avi, born in 1882, is considered the first child in modern times raised with Hebrew as his mother tongue. Through his newspapers, such as HaZvi, Ben-Yehuda coined and spread new words for modern life, among them milon (dictionary).

In 1890 he founded the Hebrew Language Committee (Va'ad HaLashon), forerunner of today's Academy of the Hebrew Language. His great Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew was completed by others in 1959, in 17 volumes. He faced fierce opposition, including a ban by some Jerusalem rabbis. In 1922, shortly before his death, the British Mandate recognized Hebrew as an official language of the country.