13 Facts About Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is renowned as the lexicographer of the first Hebrew dictionary and as the editor of Jerusalem-based HaZvi, one of the first Hebrew newspapers published in the Land of Israel.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was the primary driving force behind the revival of the Hebrew language.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda attended a Jewish elementary school where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible from the age of three, as was customary among the Jews of Eastern Europe.

In 1881 Eliezer Ben-Yehuda joined the First Aliyah and immigrated to the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, then ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and settled in Jerusalem.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda found a job teaching at the school of the Alliance Israelite Universelle.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda did not allow his son to be exposed to other languages during childhood, and even berated his wife for singing a Russian lullaby.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a major figure in the establishment of the Committee of the Hebrew Language, later the Academy of the Hebrew Language, an organization that still exists today.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was the initiator of the first modern Hebrew dictionary known as the Ben-Yehuda Dictionary and he became known as the "reviver" of the Hebrew language, despite opposition to some of the words he coined.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was the editor of several Hebrew-language newspapers: HaZvi and Hashkafa.

Hemda Ben-Yehuda became an accomplished journalist and author in her own right, ensuring the completion of the Hebrew dictionary in the decades after Eliezer's death, as well as mobilising fundraising and coordinating committees of scholars in both Israel and abroad.

In December 1922, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, 64, died of tuberculosis, from which he suffered most of his life.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda built a house for his family in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, but died three months before it was completed.