Ingawa walowezi Wayahudi wa Ulaya Mashariki walidai kuwakilisha watu wa asili wanaorejea nchini mwao baada ya miaka 2000 ya kutokuwepo, kwa kweli raia wa Urusi ndio waliounda kiini kigumu cha harakati za Uzayuni.

Although Eastern European Jewish settlers claimed to represent an indigenous people returning to its homeland after 2000 years of absence, in fact Russian nationals formed the hard core of Zionist activism.

Juhudi hizi za kujifanya upya kuwa wenyeji wa nchi hii, pamoja na kunakili lugha ya Kiarabu na majina ya mahali za Kiarabu za Wapalestina, zilihitaji juhudi kubwa ili kuumba Sabra Man wa Kiebrania Mpya, shujaa wa kihistoria asiye na msingi wa kweli, na kujenga utambulisho mpya wa Kiyahudi.

This self-re-indigenisation and copying from the Arabic language and Palestinian Arab toponyms required a great deal of effort to create the mythological New Hebrew Sabra Man and construct a new Jewish identity.

Hivyo haishangazi, kwani walowezi wa mwanzo wa Kizayuni hawakulenga tu "kubuni Nchi, na kubuni Taifa" (Rabkin 2010: 130), bali pia kubuni lugha mpya na utambulisho mpya. Wakijenga upya utambulisho wao mpya wa kibiblia uliowazwa kwa Kiebrania, katika kipindi baada ya mwaka 1948 viongozi wakuu wa Kizayuni, makamanda wa jeshi, wanaakiolojia wa Biblia na waandishi walibadilisha majina yao kutoka Kirusi, Kipolandi na Kijerumani na kuchukua majina "halisi" yanayosikika kama ya Kiebrania (ya kibiblia).

No wonder, for the early Zionist settlers were intent not only on ‘inventing a Land, and inventing a Nation’ (Rabkin 2010: 130), but also on inventing a new language and identity. Reinventing their own new, Hebrew-imagined biblical identity, the post-1948 period saw top Zionist leaders, army commanders, biblical archaeologists and authors changing their names from Russian, Polish and German to ‘authentic’ Hebrewsounding (biblical) names.

Licha ya Usemitishaji wa Wayahudi wa Ulaya na wananadharia wa lugha na jamii katika nusu ya pili ya karne ya 19, kwa kweli Kiebrania cha kisasa kilibuniwa na Wazayuni wa Ashkenazi mapema karne ya 20, si kama lugha ya Kisemiti, bali kama lugha mseto, yenye msamiati wa Kiulaya na miunganiko mikubwa ya Kiulaya, nafasi ya kitamaduni ambayo walowezi wapya wa koloni ya Wazayuni (Yishuv) huko Palestina walijihisi wako nyumbani. Yishuv ya Wazayuni (‘koloni safi’: Kimmerling 2003: 22) huko Palestina ikawa aina mpya ya uhamisho, na Kiebrania kipya, cha Kiulaya kwa nguvu, kilitoa mojawapo ya viungo muhimu vya kuunganisha na nafasi ya zamani ya kitamaduni ya Ulaya.

Despite the Semitisation of European Jews by linguistic and racial theorists in the second half of the 19th century, in fact modern Hebrew was invented by Ashkenazi Zionists in the early 20th century not as a Semitic language, but rather as a hybrid language, with European vocabulary and strong European connections, a cultural space with which new settlers of the Zionist colony (Yishuv) in Palestine felt at home. The Zionist Yishuv (‘pure colony’: Kimmerling 2003: 22) in Palestine became a new form of exile for which a new, strongly European, new Hebrew provided one of the key links to the old European cultural space.

Lakini kwa viongozi wa mwanzo wa Uzayuni wa Ulaya, kujenga "nchi ya asili" mpya / taifa jipya huko Palestina kulihitaji uvumbuzi wa lugha mpya, kuanzishwa kwa hadithi za kitaifa za msingi, na jambo lingine kabisa – lugha mpya ya Kiebrania ya kisasa, ya kidunia ya Waashkenazi. Wazayuni wengi wa mwanzo walijiita "Waebrania Wapya" na si Wayahudi, na, kama tutakavyoona hapa chini, walibadilisha kwa makusudi majina yao ya Kiyidi, Kirusi, Kipolandi au Kijerumani ili yasikike zaidi kama ya Kiebrania, ya kibiblia zaidi. Mfano mmoja maarufu ni David Grün, ambaye awali alijulikana kama David Green baada ya kuhamia Palestina, na baadaye akawa David Ben-Gurion. Hata hivyo, mvumbuzi mkuu na "baba" wa Kiebrania cha kisasa alikuwa Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (aliyekuwa Lazar Perelman) (1858–1922), ambaye alikuja kuwa shujaa wa kihistoria wa Uzayuni, sawa na baba mwanzilishi wa Uzayuni wa kisiasa, Theodor Herzl. Kama Mzayuni wa kiutamaduni, Ben-Yehuda aliona "Kiebrania cha kisasa" na Uzayuni kuwa vinategemeana kwa karibu. Alikuwa na ushawishi mkubwa katika kuunda utambulisho mpya wa pamoja wa Kiebrania uliojikita katika "fahamu ya kale" iliyobuniwa. Hili lilitegemea kubadilisha Kiebrania cha kiliturujia kutoka lugha iliyolala (karibu iliyokufa) kuwa lugha mpya inayozungumzwa leo na mamilioni ya Waisraeli. Leo Ben-Yehuda anaheshimiwa nchini Israeli kama chanzo cha "ufufuo" na "uhuishaji" wa lugha ya Kiebrania na muumbaji wa lugha ya kienyeji ya Kizayuni ya kisasa. Hadi leo Rehov Ben-Yehuda (Barabara ya Ben-Yehuda), katikati ya Jerusalem Magharibi, inamkumbuka muumbaji wa Kiebrania cha Kiisraeli.

However, for early European Zionist leaders, to build a new ‘homeland’/ state in Palestine required the invention of a new language and the founding national myths and something altogether different – a new secular modern Ashkenazi Hebrew language. Many early Zionists called themselves ‘New Hebrews’ and not Jews, and, as we shall see below, deliberately changed their European Yiddish, Russian. Polish or German names to sound more Hebraic, more biblical; for a well-known example, David Grün initially became David Green after immigrating to Palestine, and subsequently David Ben-Gurion. However, the key inventor and ‘father’ of modern Hebrew was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (formerly Lazar Perelman) (1858–1922), who became a legendary hero of Zionism on a par with the founding father of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl. As a cultural Zionist, Ben-Yehuda regarded ‘modern Hebrew’ and Zionism as symbiotic. He was hugely influential in the fashioning of a new Hebrew collective identity rooted in an invented ‘ancient consciousness’. This was based on the transformation of liturgical Hebrew from a dormant (almost dead) language to a new language spoken today by millions of Israelis. Today Ben-Yehuda is revered in Israel as the instigator of the Hebrew language ‘resurrection’ and ‘revival’ and the creator of a modern Zionist vernacular. Today Rehov Ben-Yehuda (Ben-Yehuda Street), in central West Jerusalem, commemorates the creator of Israeli Hebrew.

Lakini Ben-Yehuda pia alikuwa baba mwanzilishi wa Kiebrania cha kisasa, na alihusika na hadithi mbili kuhusu lugha hiyo:

But Ben-Yehuda was also the founding father of modern Hebrew and he was responsible for its two myths:

• Hadithi ya urejesho wa Kiebrania.

• The myth of Hebrew restoration.

• Dhana potofu kwamba Kiebrania cha kisasa ni lugha ya Kisemiti.

• The myth that modern Hebrew is a Semitic language.

Kama tutakavyoona hapa chini: Kiebrania cha kisasa kilikuwa kwa kweli lugha mpya: mchanganyiko wa Kisemiti na Kiulaya. Ben-Yehuda mwenyewe alijiona si tu kama mvumbuzi wa Kiebrania cha kisasa bali pia kama mvumbuzi wa 'taifa la Kiyahudi'.21 Aliandika:

As we shall see below: modern Hebrew was in reality a new language: a Semito- European hybrid. Ben-Yehuda himself saw himself not only as the inventor of modern Hebrew but also as an inventor of the ‘Jewish people’.21 He wrote:

"Kuna mambo mawili ambayo bila hayo Wayahudi hawataweza kuwa taifa ['am]:"

‘There are two things without which the Jews will not become a people [‘am]:

nchi [ha-aretz; yaani Palestina] na lugha [ha-lashon].'

the country [ha-aretz; i.e. Palestine] and the language [ha-lashon].’