Languages of Israel

Languages of Israel
Map showing languages in Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip. Blue shows dominantly Hebrew speaking areas, lighter blue shows mixed Hebrew and Arabic speaking areas, white shows dominantly Arabic speaking areas.
Official	Hebrew[1]
Semi-official	Arabic
Minority	Domari, Romanian, German, Polish, Ladino, Yiddish, Hungarian, French, Persian
Foreign	English and Russian
Signed	Israeli Sign Language
Keyboard layout	Hebrew

The

Russian is spoken by about 20% of the Israeli population, mainly due to the large immigrant population from the former Soviet Union, and English is known as a foreign language by a significant proportion of the Israeli population as English is used widely in official logos and road signs alongside Hebrew and Arabic. In addition, the 19th edition of Ethnologue lists 36 languages and dialects spoken through Israel.^[2]

According to a 2011

History

Several laws determine the official status of languages and language policy in Israel. This confusing situation has led to several appeals to the Supreme Court, whose rulings have enforced the current policies of national and local authorities.

On 19 July 2018, the

Before the enactment of the aforementioned basic law, the status of official language in Israel was determined by the 82nd paragraph of the Constitution of Mandatory Palestine, which was promulgated by an Order in Council of the British Crown on 14 August 1922, as amended in 1939:^[5]

All Ordinances, official notices and official forms of the Government and all official notices of local authorities and municipalities in areas to be prescribed by order of the High Commissioner, shall be published in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

This law, like most other laws of the British Mandate, was adopted in the State of Israel, subject to certain amendments published by the Provisional State Council on 19 May 1948. The amendment states that:

Any provision in the law requiring the use of the English language is repealed.^[6]

Apart from Hebrew, Arabic and English, the use of Russian dramatically increased with massive arrivals of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. Today, Russian TV channels and media are widely available alongside Hebrew and Arabic media.

Initially French was used as a diplomatic language in Israel, and was also used alongside Hebrew on official documents such as passports until the 1990s, even though most state officials and civil servants were more fluent in English. However, the Israeli-French alliance unraveled in the runup to the 1967 Six-Day War, leading to decreased use of French. Israeli passports switched from French to English during the 1990s.

Official language

Hebrew

The

Literary Arabic, along with Hebrew, has special status under Israeli law. Various spoken dialects are used, and Arabic is the native language among Israeli-Arabs. In 1949, there were 156,000 Arabs in Israel,^[13] most of whom did not speak Hebrew. Today, the figure stands at about 1.6 million, and although most are proficient in Hebrew, Arabic remains their primary native language.

In addition, a significant number of Israeli Jews know spoken Arabic, although only a very small number are fully literate in written Arabic. Arabic is the native language of older generations of those

Arabic was always considered a legitimate language for use in the Knesset alongside Hebrew, but only rarely have Arabic-speaking Knesset members made use of this privilege as while all Arabic-speaking MKs are fluent in Hebrew, fewer Hebrew-speaking MKs can understand Arabic.^[17][18]

In March 2007, the Knesset approved a new law calling for the establishment of an Arabic Language Academy similar to the Academy of the Hebrew Language. This institute was established in 2008, its centre is in Haifa and it is currently headed by Mahmud Ghanayem.^[19][20]

In 2008, a group of Knesset members proposed a bill to remove Arabic's status as an official language, making it an "official secondary language".^[21][22] That bill did not pass.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009,

In 1999, the High Court of Justice ruled that English, Arabic and Hebrew were inherited as official languages by Israel, but that English had been removed by the Law and Administration Ordinance of 1948.^[40] The Ordinance said:

"Any provision in the law requiring the use of the English language is repealed."^[6]

In practice, the use of English decreased dramatically during the state's early years. At first, French was used as a diplomatic language, even though most state officials and civil servants were more fluent in English. During the late 1960s, the Israeli-French alliance was undermined, leading to a stronger Israeli-United States alliance and paving the way for the English language to regain much of its lost status. Today, English is the primary language for international relations and foreign exchange, but it is not sanctioned for use in Knesset debates or in drafting legislation. Some British Mandate laws are still formulated in English, and the process of their translation into Hebrew has been gradual. English is required as a second language in schools and universities, for both Hebrew and Arabic-speaking students. Despite the country's history of British mandatory rule, written English in Israel today uses primarily American spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar.^{[citation needed]}

Although English does not enjoy the same status as Hebrew and Arabic do, English proficiency is a core requirement in the public education system and road signs are generally written in English after Hebrew and Arabic. English is taught in public schools from the third grade to high school, and passing an English oral and written test is a prerequisite for receiving a

Most Israelis can converse in and read English on at least a basic level,^[citation needed] and secular Israelis who are of a high social and economic status usually possess greater capabilities in English than those who are of a lower social and economic status (this is mostly due to differing levels of state-sponsored education, as well as variation in cultural exposure to the language). Israelis born from the 1980s onward generally have better English language skills than their parents and grandparents due to growing up with a higher level of exposure to the language in the media. "Proper" usage of the English language is considered a mark of good education among Israelis. In the past, several politicians, including David Levy and Amir Peretz, were mocked openly in the media and in public for their poor English skills.

Due to immigration from English-speaking countries, a small but significant minority of Israeli Jews are native English speakers. One survey found that about 2% of Israelis spoke English as their native language.^[12]

Policy towards immigrants' languages

• Romanian: It is estimated that 82,300 first generation and at least^{[nb 1]} 126,200 second generation Romanian Jews lived in Israel by 2012.^[44] Additionally, it is estimated that 14,700 Romanian nationals worked in Israel as of 2010 (with or without a work permit).^[45] These figures do not include Moldovan-born Jews and Moldovan migrants, which in turn are listed as former Soviet. However, these numbers do not account for actual language speakers but only nationality, as there is no recent data on the number of Romanophones living in Israel.
• Goethe Institute branch opened in Tel Aviv. By 2006, increasing numbers of Israelis were studying German, and at the time four Israeli schools offered German as an elective course.^[46]
• Amharic: Spoken by most of Israel's 130,000 Ethiopian Jews, most of whom arrived in two massive operations transporting tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 and 1991, Amharic is often used in government announcements and publications. Amharic is also spoken by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
• Georgian/Judaeo-Georgian: Although most Georgian Jewish immigrants can also speak Russian, they converse among themselves in Georgian.
• Sephardi Jews. Today there is a state-supported authority for preserving the Ladino culture – La Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino i su Kultura
  .
• Polish: Polish was spoken by the large number of immigrants from Poland. Today, it is somewhat common in Polish moshavei ovdim (workers' settlements) created during the 1940s and 1950s. There are also several thousand Polish Jews living in Israel who immigrated after the 1968 Polish political crisis; most were born and raised in Poland, speak the language fluently amongst themselves, and have made attempts to impart the language to their children.
• Ukrainian: While most Ukrainian Jews speak Russian, there is still a segment of Ukrainian speakers.
• olim from other Spanish-speaking countries, as well as by some Sephardi groups. Spanish is not restricted to Sephardim, as most Argentine Jews are actually Ashkenazim. Spanish has never been part of the curriculum in Israel, and Spanish is only taught as a foreign language in universities and Instituto Cervantes.^{[citation needed]} However, the popularity of soap operas from Argentina and Venezuela, broadcast in Spanish with Hebrew subtitles by Viva in the 1990s, has extended a passive understanding of the language to some of the TV viewers.^[47]
• La Francophonie,^[50] but has been rebuffed by its Arab members. Tel Aviv University is a member of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). Concentrations of French speakers are found in the towns of Netanya^[51] and Ashdod.^[52]
• Judaeo-Italian: In addition to being spoken by Italian Jews, Italian is also spoken by many Jews from Libya (a former Italian colony) and immigrants from other former Italian colonies (Eritrea and Somalia) as a primary or second language. As a result of growing demand, Italian may be taken as an optional subject in some schools.^[53]
• Hungarian: Hungarian is spoken by approximately 70,000 Hungarian Jews in Israel.
• Turkish: Turkish is spoken by some of the 77,000 Turkish Jews and their families, who immigrated from Turkey in the second half of the 20th century and also by foreign workers. Many of the Turkish speakers in Israel also speak Ladino.
• Persian: Persian is spoken by some of the 135,000 Iranian Jews who immigrated from Iran and their children.
• Qwara: These languages are spoken by Ethiopian Jews in addition to Amharic
  . Kayla appears to be extinct.
• Chinese, Filipino, and Thai: While spoken by a negligible number of Israeli Jews, Chinese, Tagalog, and Thai have made inroads in Israeli society in recent years due to an influx of non-Jewish immigrants from China, the Philippines, and Thailand.
• Marathi: Marathi is the language of Bene Israel – Indian Jews from the Konkan region of the state of Maharashtra in India. They migrated to Israel beginning in 1948, when the State of Israel was established. In 1977, they numbered about 20,000. Concentrations of Marathi speakers are found in the towns of Dimona and Beersheba.^[54]
• Malayalam: Judeo-Malayalam is the traditional language of the Cochin Jews (also called Malabar Jews), from the state of Kerala, in South India.
• Judeo-Moroccan Arabic: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic is the native language spoken by the majority of Moroccan Jews that immigrated to Israel from Morocco during the 1950s and 1960s. There is a Judeo-Moroccan Arabic radio program on Israeli radio.
• Bukharian Jews
  who immigrated from Central Asia.
• Judeo-Tat: Judeo-Tat (also known as Juhuri) is spoken by the Mountain Jews who immigrated from Russia and Azerbaijan.
• Jewish Neo-Aramaic: Jewish Neo-Aramaic language is the native language spoken by Kurdish Jews that immigrated to Israel from Iraq, Turkey, and Iran during the 1940s and 1950s.
• Romaniotes
  .
• Adyghe people
  in two villages in the north of Israel.
• Armenians in Israel
  .