Israel Language

Israel, the only Jewish country in the world enjoys a unique diversity in ethnicity and background of the people. This diversity is also reflected in Israel languages, the latest version of the official Enthologue of Israel listing 33 languages spoken in numerous communities of Israelis.

As of now, there are two official languages in Israel - Hebrew and Arabic. The language Hebrew, which became extinct for centuries, as it was not spoken after the biblical times, has been revived in the late 19th century. The language now is the most widely spoken language in Israel. Hebrew as a language was extensively used by the Jewish Zionist immigrants, but later several rules and language policies have given the language the honor of the prime status among the languages of Israel. Now Hebrew has been adopted as the language of all official correspondence, from the debates in the Israeli Parliaments to the judicial courts.

Arabic is the other official language of Israel. Earlier it was extensively spoken by the Israeli Arabs and some Mizrahis and Yemenite Jewish people. Israel government was not much inclined to give an acknowledgment to Arabic as a language. But the language ordinance issued in 2006 in the favor of Arabic explicitly states that the language should be given preference just next to Hebrew in the country. Arabic is now taught as a mandatory part of the education even in the Hebrew-speaking schools.

English as a language looses its prominence in the country after the Israel gains independence from the clutches of the British Mandate rule. English is still the language of foreign exchanges, because of its wide acceptance worldwide, but the language is forbidden in the Knesset or assembly debates of the national judiciary system.

The huge bulk of immigrants in Israel speak their very own native languages. Thus there develops several other languages in Israel speaking niche in the country, like Russian, Romanian, Yiddish, Polish and Ladino and many more.