The story of Hebrew - its origins, revival and continuing evolution - is the story of a people.
This issue of The Jewish Quarterly explores the remarkable evolution and revival of Hebrew - a language whose trajectory charts the recent history of the Jewish people. In this ground-breaking essay, award-winning writer Ben Judah explores the crucial role of modern Hebrew in defining and reshaping the Jewish people and examines its status as a fast-changing language that is spoken by Jews and Palestinians. He describes his experience of longing for and learning the language, and argues that Hebrew is a missing connection between Israel and the Diaspora. The issue also includes a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer that has been translated into English for the first time, an essay by Marta Figlerowicz about the Polish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, and more.