Hebrew has its roots dating back to biblical times, although the language has been reinvented over the past couple of centuries to fit the needs of the modern Jewish nationalism, known as Zionism which is credited with the gathering of the Jewish exiles back into their ancestral home. However, a small movement is trying to change the language to fit the needs of a Gender confused world.
Barely any sentences in Hebrew can be spoken without gender; every object has an assigned gender, a 'garden' is feminine, and a 'car' is masculine. The language does not have ‘gender-neutral’ terms because it was never a necessity in ancient times and still mostly is not these days. It can get confusing if you are unfamiliar with it and is starkly different from other gender-based languages.
Many who speak Spanish or French, in which nouns are gendered, find Hebrew far more complex and confusing. The primary difference is that one cannot speak in Hebrew in the first or second person without indicating gender. The word “I” is ungendered, but any verb connected to it in the present or future tense inherently is. Thus, the phrase “I want a cookie” becomes, in literal translation, “I female-want a female-cookie.” (Cookie is a female-gendered noun)
Israeli activists battle the deeply gendered roots of the Hebrew language https://t.co/ICwzfUeZAU
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) August 1, 2022
Consider this: You are on a train platform waiting for a train, and the following announcement comes over the loudspeaker "attention, all male passengers, the 6:40 female train to Tel Aviv has been female-canceled due to female problems with the female infrastructure at Lod". In the example above, the reason the word “canceled” is attached to the word “female” is that “train” is a female subject, grammatically, and thus most verb conjugations describing that train will be gendered.
However, in a world where 'Gender Pronouns' is becoming all the rage in places like America, some Israelis who fall on the socially liberal side of the political scale have been hard at work working on modifying Hebrew and its alphabet to deal with what they feel are inherent biases in a language whose modern form maintained the grammatical norms of biblical times.
The lack of gender-neutral pronouns and constructs in Hebrew has resulted in the masculine plural form of verbs and pronouns for most official communications.
“When I want to send a message to a group including men, women, and nonbinary people, how do I address that group in a way that includes everyone?” asked Michal Shomer, a liberal activist. She has been pushing to make Hebrew less gender-specific for the past few years.
“Research has shown that using the ‘standard’ masculine form harms girls and women and their chance to succeed in modern society,” she added. Many would disagree with her considering the heights that women have reached in the nation, from being one of the first countries to elect a female leader (Golda Meir) to the many women atop some of the country's most successful companies; however, considering that American culture is closely watched in Israel, it was just a matter of time for the progressive mindset to slide its way in, to the chagrin of most in the nation.
To this point, many Israelis have criticized these 'woke' efforts as unnecessarily tinkering with the cherished official language of the Jewish state that is a crucial part of the Zionist identity and, more importantly, to the Jewish people. It was the Hebrew Torah that millions of Jews died trying to protect over the millennia and the language in which many who died uttered their final breaths.
It has also resulted in a backlash from many Israeli conservatives, a dominant group in the country - one that is made up of religious and traditional Jews and Arabs that hold to a value system rooted in their heritage. More liberal critics complain that the constant doubling of genders turns each phrase into a potential tongue twister is needless when the current language is efficient and already vastly used as the daily language of most Israelis.
“Amen and Awoman.”
— Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) January 4, 2021
That is how Rep. Cleaver (D-MO) concluded his opening prayer for the 117th Congress yesterday.
Amen is from the Hebrew language and translates to “so be it.”
It has nothing to do with gender identity, inclusivity, or politics.
You just can’t make this up.
“To repeat that more than once is awful; the text becomes one big annoyance; you don’t want to hear it anymore!” said Ruvik Rosenthal, a language expert who in his latest book, “My Life, My Language,” titled a chapter about gender and Israel’s lingua franca “In praise of sex-maniac Hebrew,” borrowing a term from Yona Wallach, a feminist poet.
The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation
— DÆDALUS Magazine (@Daedalus_Mag) April 7, 2022
Gender is neutered in ancient Greek and Latin, never was in Aramaic and its successor Hebrew, language issue. See? Ambiguous, open to interpretation. Stop being angry.https://t.co/IbN5qOh00U
Some conservatives and Orthodox Jews oppose the new focus on linguistic equality since they reject the principles of LGBTQ in general. Avi Maoz, a lawmaker from a party opposed to LBGTQ rights, has protested against using government forms in a gender-neutral format. To be fair, Israel is one of the most open countries regarding LGBTQ rights. Tel Aviv has been the host for decades to one of the premiere Pride Parade celebrations in the world. Many of the 'National Religious' communities within the country open their synagogues and homes to the gay community and allow homosexuals to participate in some religious rights.
Today's story about Israel in @nytimes is a nice colorful story about how the Hebrew language is changing with the changing attitudes towards gender.
— Lilac Sigan (@lilacsigan) August 1, 2022
These things happen sometimes too.
But they don't compensate the readers for the very twisted coverage of the conflict. pic.twitter.com/mnYrncW8KZ
Some American students and academics have tried constructing gender-inclusive language projects for Hebrew. Still, the far-less socially ‘woke’ Israeli students have not been adopting the American-born phenomenon. Merav Michaeli, the feminist leader of the Labor party, is widely credited with having led the movement for a more inclusive Hebrew. At first, she tended to favor only using the feminine form. However, she has switched to more frequent use of both. The practice is panned by most Israelis who simply want to speak their language as it was taught to them - without having to make obvious political statements through the nouns, and pronouns they choose to speak.
