160-632: The Jezreel Valley railway , or the Valley Train ( Hebrew : רַכֶּבֶת הָעֵמֶק , Rakevet HaEmek ; Arabic : خط سكة حديد حيفا – درعا , romanized : khaṭṭ sikkat ḥadīd Ḥayfa–Dar‘a ) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman and British Palestine , reconstituted as a modern railway in Israel in the 21st century. It runs from the Mediterranean coast inland along the length of
320-605: A 20 km dike was created for the next stage of construction. Due to the competition from the French railway in Beirut, the port of Haifa became less attractive to international traders and that, coupled with strife within the Syria Ottoman Railway Company, caused Pilling to go bankrupt and lose the permit for the railway. The construction permits were given to another British company, and another ceremony
480-685: A Hebrew form. Medieval Hebrew added 6421 words to (Modern) Hebrew. The approximate number of new lexical items in Israeli is 17,000 (cf. 14,762 in Even-Shoshan 1970 [...]). With the inclusion of foreign and technical terms [...], the total number of Israeli words, including words of biblical, rabbinic and medieval descent, is more than 60,000. In Israel, Modern Hebrew is currently taught in institutions called Ulpanim (singular: Ulpan). There are government-owned, as well as private, Ulpanim offering online courses and face-to-face programs. Modern Hebrew
640-595: A century ago, was fluent enough in this idiom to be able to follow the Mishna Berurah without any trouble." Hebrew has been revived several times as a literary language, most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th-century Germany. In the early 19th century, a form of spoken Hebrew had emerged in the markets of Jerusalem between Jews of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate for commercial purposes. This Hebrew dialect
800-661: A company along with Gottlieb Schumacher , one of the founders of the German Colony of Haifa, and Georg Agger of Jaffa , which would find investors for attaining a construction permit from the Sursock family, and the construction itself. On June 13, 1883, early surveying work was completed and Oliphant began to look for investors, both in Britain and Germany. In a letter he wrote to the Duke of Sutherland , Oliphant claimed that
960-661: A corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Moshe Zvi Segal , Joseph Klausner and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946–1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to
1120-616: A deal with the French that would allow a 45% discount in transporting equipment from Damascus to Muzeirib necessary to continue building the Ottoman Hejaz railway to the south. Despite this, the French constituted a monopoly on the railway lines of the area, and canceled the discount. Their trains were also not equipped to cross the sections of railway covered by snow in Lebanon . Several months later, Meissner reconsidered, and decided to construct his own railway line between Damascus and
1280-579: A distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic. ) Another important influence was Maimonides , who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah . Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and
1440-594: A gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904–1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with
1600-649: A group of investors including publishing magnate Conrad Black . The goal was to provide an alternative to The New York Times , featuring front-page news about local and state events, in contrast to the emphasis on national and international news by the Times . The Sun began business operations, prior to first publication, in October 2001. The newspaper's president and editor-in-chief was Seth Lipsky , former editor of The Jewish Daily Forward . Managing editor Ira Stoll also served as company vice-president. Stoll had been
1760-468: A literary language down through the Byzantine period from the 4th century CE. The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with
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#17327798123691920-536: A literary language, especially in Spain, as the language of commerce between Jews of different native languages, and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew , until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In May 2023, Scott Stripling published the finding of what he claims to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, a curse tablet found at Mount Ebal , dated from around 3200 years ago. The presence of
2080-649: A longtime critic of The New York Times in his media watchdog blog smartertimes.com. Published from the Cary Building in Lower Manhattan , it ceased print publication on September 30, 2008. When asked why, Lipsky said, "we needed additional funds. . . . [T]he 2008 financial collapse was sweeping the world, and the Internet was emerging as a challenge to traditional newspapering." The paper's motto , which it shared with its predecessor and namesake,
2240-619: A modern port in Haifa or Acre , and a shipping company. For that purpose, Oliphant purchased additional lands on Haifa's coast, and in the Megiddo area. Despite these efforts, the plans failed—the British government, the only one interested in the project, sent the Duke of Sutherland to inspect it, who refused to help sponsor the project. The Lebanese families headed by Sursock, who wished to build
2400-564: A passenger line. The kibbutzim in the area also used the railway to their economic advantage. In 1922, Deganya asked for a special wagon to transport its dairy products to Haifa in the late night hours. Permission was granted, and gave Deganya and other kibbutzim access to other parts of the country and the world for export. Hebrew language Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית , ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ʿÎbrit )
2560-544: A railway from Beirut to the Hauran via Damascus, eventually attaining it. The French began building their line quickly, and finished construction in 1895, while the British worked slowly. At the time of the Beirut–Damascus line 's inception, Pilling's company only managed to build a special port in Haifa to aid in the line's construction. Eight kilometers of standard gauge railroad were laid, between Haifa and Yagur , and
2720-548: A set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba revolt around 135 CE. In
2880-490: A single issue; a paper that functions as a journalistic SWAT team against individuals and institutions seen as hostile to Israel and Jews; and a paper that unapologetically displays the scalps of its victims." In the same article, Mark Malloch Brown , Kofi Annan 's chief of staff at the United Nations , described The Sun as "a pimple on the backside of American journalism." According to Sherman, Brown "accepts that
3040-499: A small subset of the original content of the paper, mostly editorials at irregular intervals, op-ed commentaries and frequent contributions from economist and noted television commentator Lawrence Kudlow . In addition, commentaries on the arts have been published. On November 2, 2021, The New York Sun was acquired by Dovid Efune, former CEO and editor-in-chief of the Algemeiner Journal . Efune confirmed Seth Lipsky in
3200-668: A spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt , they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms. After
3360-533: A train leaving Haifa crashed into a train travelling from Damascus due to an error on the telegraphist's part. The driver of the Haifa–Tiberias train was killed. Following the Haifa extension's crucial success and high demand, 12 stations were added to the line's 8 original in the first few years. In addition, Meissner began planning and construction additional extensions in Palestine and outside of it. The first
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#17327798123693520-472: A truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology , was to take its place among the current languages of the nations. While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of
3680-558: A vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee , Pharisee , Scribe , Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from Hebrew texts. While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its chief successor in
3840-518: Is 8198, of which some 2000 are hapax legomena (the number of Biblical Hebrew roots, on which many of these words are based, is 2099). The number of attested Rabbinic Hebrew words is less than 20,000, of which (i) 7879 are Rabbinic par excellence, i.e. they did not appear in the Old Testament (the number of new Rabbinic Hebrew roots is 805); (ii) around 6000 are a subset of Biblical Hebrew; and (iii) several thousand are Aramaic words which can have
4000-644: Is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period ) and Samaritanism . The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and
4160-642: Is as balanced an article as I have ever read in the magazine (not a gibe; you don't read The Nation for balance)." Alex Jones of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy said in 2008, "It was a newspaper especially savored by people who don't like The New York Times , and there are plenty of those in New York." The paper also scored more scoops than would be expected for its size and Stephen B. Shepard , dean of
4320-567: Is fighting to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services. In 2012, a Knesset bill for the preservation of the Hebrew language was proposed, which includes the stipulation that all signage in Israel must first and foremost be in Hebrew, as with all speeches by Israeli officials abroad. The bill's author, MK Akram Hasson , stated that the bill was proposed as a response to Hebrew "losing its prestige" and children incorporating more English words into their vocabulary. Hebrew
4480-959: Is one of several languages for which the constitution of South Africa calls to be respected in their use for religious purposes. Also, Hebrew is an official national minority language in Poland , since 6 January 2005. Hamas has made Hebrew a compulsory language taught in schools in the Gaza Strip. New York Sun The New York Sun is an American conservative news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, New York . From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) online-only publisher of political and economic opinion pieces, as well as occasional arts content. Coming under new management in November 2021, it began full-time online publication in 2022. From 2002 to 2008, The Sun
4640-573: Is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival . It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic , still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew , with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around
4800-457: Is the primary official language of the State of Israel. As of 2013 , there are about 9 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, of whom 7 million speak it fluently. Currently, 90% of Israeli Jews are proficient in Hebrew, and 70% are highly proficient. Some 60% of Israeli Arabs are also proficient in Hebrew, and 30% report having a higher proficiency in Hebrew than in Arabic. In total, about 53% of
4960-547: Is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however, properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting
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5120-650: The Chayei Adam in Hebrew, as opposed to Yiddish , as a guide to Halacha for the " average 17-year-old" (Ibid. Introduction 1). Similarly, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan 's purpose in writing the Mishnah Berurah was to "produce a work that could be studied daily so that Jews might know the proper procedures to follow minute by minute". The work was nevertheless written in Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic, since, "the ordinary Jew [of Eastern Europe] of
5280-400: The Algemeiner Journal . Efune confirmed Seth Lipsky in the position of editor-in-chief. Following Efune's acquisition, The New York Sun resumed full-time online reporting in 2022, focusing on a digital-first strategy. The Sun was named with a desire for conscious association with the previous newspaper The Sun which was published from 1833 to 1950. The relaunched Sun was founded by
5440-727: The Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος ( hebraîos ) and Aramaic 'ibrāy , all ultimately derived from Biblical Hebrew Ivri ( עברי ), one of several names for the Israelite ( Jewish and Samaritan ) people ( Hebrews ). It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham 's ancestor, Eber , mentioned in Genesis 10:21 . The name is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of
5600-632: The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York said in 2008 that its effective coverage of local news earned it a place in the New York media world. Accordingly, it was known as a good place for young, ambitious, scrappy reporters to start out. The Sun received critical praise for its sports section, writers for which included Steven Goldman, Thomas Hauser , Sean Lahman , Tim Marchman, and John Hollinger . Its crossword puzzle, edited by Peter Gordon,
5760-547: The Canaanite group of languages . Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages. Hebrew was the spoken language in the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. Epigraphic evidence from this period confirms the widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore,
5920-527: The Cary Building at Church Street and Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, was antiquated, with malfunctioning telephones and computers, a trouble-prone elevator and fire alarm system, and dubious bathroom plumbing. Nevertheless, Lipsky had hopes of breaking even within the first year of operation. The Audit Bureau of Circulations confirmed that in its first six months of publication The Sun had an average circulation of just under 18,000. By 2005
6080-572: The Gospel of Matthew . (See the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis or Language of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels.) The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which
6240-701: The Jezreel Valley . The historical line was a segment of the longer Haifa–Dera'a Line , which was itself a branch of the larger Hejaz railway . The historical Haifa–Dera'a line was built at the beginning of the 20th century and connected the Port of Haifa with the main part of the Hejaz railway, the Damascus – Medina line. Like the entire Hejaz railway, it was a 1,050 mm ( 3 ft 5 + 11 ⁄ 32 in ) narrow gauge line. The last stop of
6400-495: The Latin alphabet of ancient Rome . The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels , and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places in which later Hebrew spelling requires them. Numerous older tablets have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example, Proto-Sinaitic . It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs , though
6560-682: The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and the emergence of the Hasmonean kingdom , the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). The nationalist significance of Hebrew manifested in various ways throughout this period. Michael Owen Wise notes that "Beginning with the time of the Hasmonean revolt [...] Hebrew came to the fore in an expression akin to modern nationalism. A form of classical Hebrew
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6720-565: The Samakh / Tzemah station would denote the railway border between the British and French mandates, even though the more isolated al-Hamma station was physically also under British control. The rolling stock left by the Ottomans was divided between the British and French, who had no intention of producing new rolling stock fit for the Ottoman narrow gauge railways. The only trains produced by
6880-542: The Sea of Galilee area. The railway also connected the Hauran to the Mediterranean Sea, turning it into a major export hub. The British Mandatory authorities took a different approach to the railway system in their first years of rule. They were mainly interested in assets that helped strengthen their colonial hold on the region. Few funds were allocated for proper maintenance, and unlike other railroads in Palestine,
7040-536: The Second Aliyah , it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects of local languages, including Judaeo-Spanish (also called "Judezmo" and "Ladino"), Yiddish , Judeo-Arabic and Bukhori (Tajiki), or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian , Persian and Arabic . The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along
7200-462: The literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language . However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Ahad Ha'am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into
7360-620: The official language of the State of Israel . Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998, and over nine million people in 2013. After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans ). Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around
7520-484: The ostraca found near Lachish , which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE. In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between c. 1000 BCE and c. 400 CE . It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them. Sometimes
7680-441: The 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic period , the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon . Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew , the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that, through the Greeks and Etruscans , later became
7840-454: The 1980s in the USSR , Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel ( refuseniks ). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, e.g. Yosef Begun , Ephraim Kholmyansky , Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of the USSR. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However,
8000-535: The 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Arabic (mainly by Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of
8160-452: The 3 main Hejaz sections: Britain's forces besieged the Ottoman Empire's Mediterranean ports, which led to a lack of basic provisions and maintenance supplies needed to keep the railway working. The lack of coal rendered most steam locomotives inoperable. Attempts were made to mine coal in Lebanon, but the inferior coal there caused damage to the trains. Eventually it was decided to use charcoal , and extensive logging operations were set up by
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#17327798123698320-495: The 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity . For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh ( לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש , lit. ' the holy tongue ' or ' the tongue [of] holiness ' ) since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible , but as Yehudit ( transl. ' Judean ' ) or Səpaṯ Kəna'an ( transl. "the language of Canaan " ). Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to
8480-443: The 9 km already built by S.O.R. In 1903, track laying began between Haifa and Daraa . The biggest challenge was the construction east of Samakh (Samakh–Daraa). The length of this section was 73 km and the height difference was 529 m. Eight tunnels were dug for the section, totalling a length of 1,100 m and 329 bridges and aqueducts . These difficulties raised the price of the Haifa extension by tens of percents. A meter on
8640-579: The Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud. Hebrew persevered through the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses—not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba 's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. For example,
8800-403: The British High Commissioner in the mandate. The Hejaz railway's ownership was transferred by the Turks to the Waqf , out of fear of a French takeover (the French petitioned the International Court of Justice for this purpose). After the division of the Ottoman Empire into League of Nations mandates , causing the Hejaz railway to be split between British and French rule, it was agreed that
8960-503: The British Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. After the establishment of Israel, it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language . The results of Ben-Yehuda's lexicographical work were published in a dictionary ( The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew , Ben-Yehuda Dictionary ). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by
9120-412: The British for this railway were two multiple units from Sentinel Waggon Works and Cammell Laird , imported in 1929. The frequency of trains increased again during British rule, to two daily trains from Haifa to Samakh (one of which continued to Damascus), three daily trains on the Acre extension (Balad al-Sheikh–Acre), and one weekly train from Haifa to Nablus , via Afula . During World War II ,
9280-423: The Damascus–Daraa section had an average cost of 2,070 Turkish liras , while a meter on the Daraa–Haifa line cost 3,480 liras. The line was finally opened with 5 stations in January 1904, between Haifa and Beysan . On October 15, 1905, the entire Haifa–Daraa section opened, with 8 stations within Ottoman Palestine. On the opening ceremony, when the first train left Haifa for Damascus, a monument for Abdul Hamid II
9440-408: The French government's extreme pressure on the Ottoman government to cancel the project, which would compete with the French-owned Jaffa–Jerusalem railway . By 1914, only 40 km were built from Afula, and the line terminated near the village Silat ad-Dhahr (Sileh). During World War I, the southward connection became essential for supplying the troops in the Sinai Peninsula , so from January 1915,
9600-416: The Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return from captivity. In time, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew. By the beginning of the Common Era , Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian , Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek , but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as
9760-418: The Haifa line through their own railways, the Ottomans wanted to have their own railway line to the Mediterranean. In 1902, the Ottoman authorities revoked S.O.R.'s permit for a compensation of 155,000 Turkish lira . While Sultan Abdul Hamid II 's original plans for the Hejaz railway did not include an extension to Haifa, the construction of such an extension was logical in order to assert Ottoman control over
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#17327798123699920-521: The Haifa–Dera'a line within the Mandate Palestine borders was at al-Hamma , today Hamat Gader . Planning and construction took four years. The railway was inaugurated on October 15, 1905, and regular services operated on it until 1948. Despite several renewal attempts, the line lay dismantled for decades until 2011 when construction started on a large-scale project to build a new 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge railway from Haifa to Beit She'an along roughly
10080-425: The Hauran, close to the French line. On September 1, 1902, the Damascus– Daraa line was completed, and turned the Hauran from a remote near-inaccessible location into a transportation center with two railway connections. Upon the initiation of the Damascus–Daraa line, Meissner realized that it was still very difficult to transport raw materials to Daraa for the construction of the rest of the Hejaz railway, as most of
10240-432: The Hebrew name of god , Yahweh, as three letters, Yod-Heh-Vav (YHV), according to the author and his team meant that the tablet is Hebrew and not Canaanite. However, practically all professional archeologists and epigraphers apart from Stripling's team claim that there is no text on this object. In July 2008, Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa that he claimed may be
10400-437: The Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac alphabet , precursor to the Arabic alphabet , also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex , a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely in Tiberias, and survives into
10560-517: The Hejaz railway, and passenger traffic consequently increased as well. More trains were put into service on the line, and new technologies were utilized to shorten travel times. The railway was able to connect those locations to Haifa that were physically close, but had no road connection. The only usable roads at the time for horse-drawn carriages were Haifa– Nazareth , Haifa– Akka and Nazareth– Afula – Jenin , which left out places with high growth potential like Beisan and Tiberias . Tiberias . which
10720-602: The Holy Land utilizing the valley line. A notable package was a trip using the valley line from Haifa to Samakh, where the tourists would take a steam boat to Tiberias via the Sea of Galilee and explore the Christian holy sites around the lake. When the line became popular with tourists, the travel conditions were improved in order to make a good first impression to dignitaries and aristocrats from all over Europe. In 1912, first and second class cars were introduced. The increase in train frequency and lack of proper inspection led to numerous railway disasters. On July 7, 1909, for example,
10880-454: The Israeli population speaks Hebrew as a native language, while most of the rest speak it fluently. In 2013 Hebrew was the native language of 49% of Israelis over the age of 20, with Russian , Arabic , French , English , Yiddish and Ladino being the native tongues of most of the rest. Some 26% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 12% of Arabs reported speaking Hebrew poorly or not at all. Steps have been taken to keep Hebrew
11040-417: The Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek , scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Abraham Geiger and Gustaf Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic period in the 4th century BCE, and that as
11200-411: The Ottoman authorities initially underutilized its potential as a commercial venue. Over the years however, the potential was realized and the Jezreel valley line quickly became a major competitor to the French Beirut-Damascus line for transferring products from the Hauran to the Mediterranean. Prices dropped quickly both for passenger tickets and freight transfer. However, the Ottomans were able to lower
11360-405: The Ottoman government. The line was meant to go from Acre to Damascus with spurs to Haifa and Bosra . Elias did not have the ability to gather the funds necessary for such a project, and it was agreed that he would buy out Shukri's share and sell the rights to John Robert Pilling, a British entrepreneur. Pilling quickly founded an investment company, which was listed in the London Stock Exchange as
11520-494: The Ottomans to keep up the demand. More extensions to the line were built as a result, for the efficient transport of wood—one from Tulkarm to the forest of Hadera , and another to the Menashe Heights on the slopes of Mount Carmel near Umm al-Fahm . As these operations went on, the number of natural forests in Palestine dwindled, and the authorities ordered the cutting down of every tenth fruit-bearing tree to support
11680-531: The S.O.R. Ltd.—Syria Ottoman Railway Limited. The S.O.R. based its plans on the original surveying work done in the area, and after a financial re-evaluation, the planned terminus was changed to Haifa, which had a modern deep-water seaport, compared to Acre's old shallow one. The planned length of the line, from Haifa to Damascus via the Golan Heights , with two extensions, was 230 km (140 mi). Twenty-seven stations were planned. On December 12, 1892,
11840-674: The Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical aggadah midrashes . Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as
12000-460: The Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it
12160-531: The Turks quickly destroyed any railway infrastructure and rolling stock they could, so that it would not fall into British hands. By the end of the war, the British controlled all of the Jezreel Valley railway. On October 1, 1920, the British company Palestine Railways (P.R.) was founded, which oversaw all the railways within the British Mandate of Palestine . It was a commercial company, but answered to
12320-613: The United States , loss of advertising revenue to the Internet and the rise of new media . From the beginning, it struggled for existence. The Sun was the first new daily newspaper launched in New York since 1976, when News World Communications , a company controlled by the Unification Church , launched The News World (that was later renamed the New York City Tribune and folded in 1991). At
12480-488: The ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use. According to the Jerusalem Talmud , Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from Bet Guvrrin said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing." The later section of
12640-478: The above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as
12800-458: The area, which was under Ottoman rule. In 1865, Dr. Charles Franz Zimfel , a German-American doctor, engineer, follower of John Wroe and Zionist, proposed the creation of a railway from Jaffa to Jerusalem , which would continue to Jericho and end in Damascus, with an extension to Haifa through the Jezreel Valley (see Jezreel Valley railway). Zimfel surveyed the territory and became one of
12960-561: The average Jew, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicate a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman period , or about 200 CE. It continued on as
13120-547: The beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar , refused to speak Hebrew and spoke only Yiddish. In the Soviet Union, the use of Hebrew, along with other Jewish cultural and religious activities,
13280-519: The branch line got severed from both the Eastern Railway and the Jezreel Valley railway main line, so it could no longer be operated and was dismantled. After dismantling, two segments of the branch line were paved, and remain in use as rural roads: between Bizzariya and Ramin , and from Shavei Shomron passing north of Zawata to a junction with road 5715. The disused railway station in Jenin
13440-602: The composition of 1 Maccabees in archaizing Hebrew, Hasmonean coinage under John Hyrcanus (134-104 BCE), and coins from both the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt featuring exclusively Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew script inscriptions. This deliberate use of Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew script in official contexts, despite limited literacy, served as a symbol of Jewish nationalism and political independence. The Christian New Testament contains some Semitic place names and quotes. The language of such Semitic glosses (and in general
13600-432: The construction continued, reaching Nablus in the spring of 1915. At this point, the original plan for a southward line to Jerusalem was no longer relevant, and instead, from a junction at Mas'udiya near Sebastia the construction continued westward to Tulkarm and from there southward, reaching Lydda in the summer of 1915, and Beersheba in October 1915. In the same year, the existing railway between Lydda and Jerusalem
13760-511: The construction of the line was extremely important both politically and economically, that it would eventually serve as the connection between Asia Minor , the Fertile Crescent , and Egypt , and expressed fear that the line would be under sole German ownership. Oliphant and his peers advertised the line as extremely profitable for investors, estimating the gain at 34%, and promising additional permits to construct additional extensions,
13920-468: The content of Hebrew inscriptions suggests that the written texts closely mirror the spoken language of that time. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as
14080-543: The contractor George Pauling started work on the line, after an inaugural ceremony. Work on the line was opposed by the Chémin de Fer Damas–Hama et Prolongements (DHP), a standard gauge railway that carried freight between Damascus and Hama . The DHP did everything in its power to prevent the construction of the line in order to avoid competition. At the same time, the DHP petitioned the Ottoman government for its own permit to build
14240-568: The dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;
14400-529: The earlier British plans. Originally, the line was meant to climb the Golan Heights next to the Samakh Stream , although later it was decided that the Yarmouk River would make a better route. In 1902, the Ottomans revoked the construction permit of the British company S.O.R., compensated them, and immediately started construction. The first phase was to narrow the gauge to the Ottoman standard in
14560-423: The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating from around 3,000 years ago. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said that the inscription was "proto-Canaanite" but cautioned that "[t]he differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear", and suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far. The Gezer calendar also dates back to
14720-513: The earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language and often introduced calques from Yiddish and phono-semantic matchings of international words. Despite using Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation as its primary basis, modern Israeli Hebrew has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following: The vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew is much larger than that of earlier periods. According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann : The number of attested Biblical Hebrew words
14880-532: The early 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah , destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the east in Babylon . During the Babylonian captivity , many Israelites learned Aramaic, the closely related Semitic language of their captors. Thus, for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. After Cyrus
15040-561: The eve of the Israeli declaration of independence , May 14, 1948, when Jewish forces destroyed a bridge on the Jordan River , next to Gesher . The original plan was to destroy two road bridges but the soldiers spotted the railway bridge and decided to blow it up as well. The railroad was thus rendered inoperable, and what remained of it was transferred to Israel Railways upon the company's founding. The company made minor repairs along
15200-711: The first Middle East printing press, in Safed (modern Israel), produced a small number of books in Hebrew in 1577, which were then sold to the nearby Jewish world. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could converse in Latin. For example, Rabbi Avraham Danzig wrote
15360-513: The first railway planners in Palestine. Claude R. Conder , in his extensive Survey of Western Palestine , proposed the construction of a railway from Haifa to the Fertile Crescent . His plans constituted the basis for the actual construction years later. Sir Laurence Oliphant of Britain, who hoped to facilitate Jewish settlement in the Gilead , proposed the creation of a railway from Haifa to that region, which would then branch out to Aqaba in
15520-515: The former railway station, the activists were eventually allowed to settle 8 km to the south of it, establishing Kedumim . The Jezreel Valley railway was highly profitable and became the most worthwhile project of the Hejaz railway . Previously isolated localities such as Afula , Tiberias and Beit She'an began to develop and tourism increased in Tiberias, the Jordan River , and the rest of
15680-493: The frequency reached its peak, at 6 daily trains from Haifa to Samakh and back. The tourist packages were also improved, now also including flights on Imperial Airways aircraft, which could land in the Sea of Galilee . After the perceived British betrayal of Jewish interests after World War II , leaders of various Jewish underground organizations in Mandate Palestine founded The Jewish Resistance Movement . One of
15840-406: The generic term for these passages is Baraitot . The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained
16000-462: The language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which is derived from the name of the alphabet used , in contrast to Ivrit , meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt , which
16160-465: The language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is often referred to as "Hebrew" in the text, although this term is often re-interpreted as referring to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, these glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well. It has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Koine Greek, lay behind the composition of
16320-471: The language. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora " shtetl " lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making
16480-544: The line, which allowed trains to travel between Haifa and Afula. Service on the new shortened line was terminated in 1949. Two main reasons were the lack of financial feasibility, and the non-standard narrow gauge of the railway. In 1950-51, the line was used occasionally for tourism. Its last use was registered in September 1951, for training exercises by the Israel Defense Forces . In 1954, the rolling stock
16640-678: The line, which was mostly family-owned, and to enable the cheap transport of goods from the Hauran , also owned by the family, to the Mediterranean Sea for export. On May 16, 1883, Sir Laurence Oliphant wrote in the New York Sun that he had met with Mr. Sursock regarding the construction of a railway in the Jezreel Valley, and claimed that he could see surveying work as he wrote, from his home in Daliyat al-Karmel . Oliphant founded
16800-411: The materials came with ships via the Mediterranean. Meissner decided in 1902 that there was no choice but to build an extension connecting the new railway to a Mediterranean port nearby. Haifa was chosen for its already developed port, and because surveying, planning and some construction work for a railroad had already been done on the proposed route. Construction plans for the valley train were based on
16960-727: The newly declared State of Israel . Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today. In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew , Modern Israeli Hebrew , Modern Hebrew , New Hebrew , Israeli Standard Hebrew , Standard Hebrew and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits some features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic. The literary and narrative use of Hebrew
17120-402: The other main user of the railway, which allowed it to build new villages in relatively remote areas in the Jezreel Valley . The Jewish Tower and stockade organization extensively used the line to quickly bring vast amounts of construction materials to various sites to quickly establish new homes. This prompted the quick growth of the Jewish population in the area, which also used the railway as
17280-618: The paper reported an estimated circulation of 45,000. In December 2005, The Sun withdrew from the Audit Bureau of Circulations to join the Certified Audit of Circulations , whose other New York clients are the free papers The Village Voice and AM New York Metro , and began an aggressive campaign of free distribution in select neighborhoods. While The Sun claimed "150,000 of New York City's Most Influential Readers Every Day", The Sun ' s own audit indicated that it
17440-565: The paper's existing backers would not put forward more money unless new backers with capital were found. The chance that funding had of materializing was negated by the onset of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 , and The Sun ceased publication on September 30, 2008. It had approximately 110 employees at that time, and also made use of many freelance writers . Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg commented that "The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly," and that its writers were "smart, thoughtful, provocative". Allegations were published in
17600-449: The paper's obsession with the UN translates into influence ... he admitted The Sun "does punch way above its circulation number, on occasion". He goes on to say, "Clearly amongst its minuscule circulation were a significant number of diplomats. And so it did at times act as some kind of rebel house paper inside the UN. It fed the gossip mills and what was said in the cafeterias." Brown's insult
17760-815: The perceived threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran and also was known for its forceful coverage of Jewish-related issues, and advocacy for Israel's right of self-defense, as evidenced in articles by pro-Israel reporter Aaron Klein . Conservative Catholic commentator and anti-abortionist Richard John Neuhaus , writing in 2006 in First Things , described the Sun as a paper that had "made itself nearly indispensable for New Yorkers". According to Scott Sherman, writing in The Nation in April 2007, The Sun
17920-534: The phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite , and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from that of Egyptian. One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone , written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam inscription , found near Jerusalem , is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include
18080-461: The position of editor-in-chief. Following Efune's acquisition, The New York Sun resumed full-time online reporting in 2022, focusing on a digital-first strategy. In 2002, Editor-in-chief Lipsky said that the paper's prominent op-ed page would champion "limited government, individual liberty, constitutional fundamentals, equality under the law, economic growth ... standards in literature and culture, education". Another goal, said Lipsky in 2009,
18240-591: The present day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain , important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic . Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj , Jonah ibn Janah , Abraham ibn Ezra and later (in Provence ), David Kimhi . A great deal of poetry
18400-501: The presidency (2007), and lowering, rather than raising, the debt ceiling in response to the debt ceiling crisis (2013). The Sun' s columnists included prominent conservative and neoconservative pundits, including William F. Buckley, Jr. , Michael Barone , Daniel Pipes , and Mark Steyn . The Sun supported President George W. Bush and his decision to launch the Iraq War in 2003. The paper also urged strong action against
18560-425: The prices more because they did not have to pay dividends and did not require as high a profit. This caused the valley line to become favorite among exporters in the Hauran, to the point that many of them preferred to send their goods through the valley line to Haifa and ship them to Beirut, rather than send them directly to Beirut over the French railway. The valley line quickly became the most profitable section of
18720-635: The primary language of use, and to prevent large-scale incorporation of English words into the Hebrew vocabulary. The Academy of the Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem currently invents about 2,000 new Hebrew words each year for modern words by finding an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning, as an alternative to incorporating more English words into Hebrew vocabulary. The Haifa municipality has banned officials from using English words in official documents, and
18880-589: The railway for their personal needs, also failed to raise the necessary funds. At the end of 1884, the Sursocks' permit expired, and the 50,000 francs deposited by Oliphant's company to the Sultan Abdul Hamid II were also lost. On May 13, 1890, the Ottoman authorities gave a permit to build a railway line from Haifa to Damascus to the public servant Shukri Bey and a Christian Lebanese engineer and effendi named Yusuf Elias, both of whom worked for
19040-687: The resistance's first operations was the Night of the Trains (November 1, 1945), in which 153 points along various railways were damaged. The main damage to the valley line at a railway switch near the Afula station. Rehavam Ze'evi participated in this bombing. In June 1946, as part of the Night of the Bridges , the Palmach blew up one of the main bridges on the valley line, between Samakh and al-Hamma, which
19200-734: The rest of the Middle East; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. William Schniedewind argues that after waning in the Persian period, the religious importance of Hebrew grew in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and cites epigraphical evidence that Hebrew survived as a vernacular language – though both its grammar and its writing system had been substantially influenced by Aramaic. According to another summary, Greek
19360-476: The same route as the historic valley railway. Israel Railways began passenger service on the new valley railway on October 16, 2016. In the 1860s the deputy British consul in Haifa, Thomas B. Sandwit, proposed the construction of a railway from the city to Baghdad , through the Jezreel Valley , with a possible extension to Damascus . Sandwit sought to create a continuous railway link between British India and Palestine in order to increase British influence in
19520-506: The section between the Hauran and the Mediterranean Sea , and to compete against the French-owned Beirut–Damascus railway. German engineer Heinrich August Meissner who oversaw the construction of the Hejaz railway, considered the planned section immediately south of Damascus (Damascus– Muzeirib ) to be useless, because of the French railway using the same route. After failing to acquire the French railway lines, Meissner signed
19680-425: The severe lack of modern infrastructure in the Middle East during the war, the few railways in the region were of vital strategic importance to the Ottomans. The valley train, as well as the entire Hejaz line, was quickly taken over by the army and civilian use was reduced to a bare minimum. The Hejaz railway's headquarters were moved to Haifa, closer to the front, and military engineers were placed in command of each of
19840-480: The south, and Damascus in the north. From Aqaba, he hoped to further extend the railway to the Suez Canal . In his visit to Palestine in 1883, Oliphant changed his plans to what later became the valley railway. In 1882, a group headed by the aristocratic Sursock family attained a permit for the construction of a railway in the Jezreel Valley . The family sought to build a railway there to raise land value around
20000-493: The southern villages of Judea." In other words, "in terms of dialect geography, at the time of the tannaim Palestine could be divided into the Aramaic-speaking regions of Galilee and Samaria and a smaller area, Judaea, in which Rabbinic Hebrew was used among the descendants of returning exiles." In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among
20160-474: The spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, a policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in
20320-470: The term "Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants of the land of Israel and Judah , perhaps from the perspective of Mesopotamia , Phoenicia or Transjordan (with the river referred to being perhaps the Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare
20480-596: The time of its creation, one media financial analyst said the Sun's chances of survival were "pretty grim", while another media commentator characterized it as "the unlikeliest of propositions". It was underfunded from the start, with ten investors putting up a total of approximately $ 15 million—not enough for long-term running. Beyond Conrad Black, who pulled out in 2003, these included hedge fund managers Michael Steinhardt and Bruce Kovner , private equity fund manager Thomas J. Tisch , and financier and think tank figure Roger Hertog . The Sun ' s physical plant, in
20640-580: The upper class of Jerusalem , while Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE, Judaeans were forced to disperse. Many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north. Many scholars have pointed out that Hebrew continued to be used alongside Aramaic during Second Temple times, not only for religious purposes but also for nationalistic reasons, especially during revolts such as
20800-503: The valley railway was not converted to standard gauge. It therefore slowly became underserviced and obsolete. Nevertheless, due to the use of coal, which was imported from Britain, certain British companies supported the line's continued operation. In the 1920s, the railway's main purpose became the transport of raw materials for construction. The first power station in Palestine, a hydroplant built in Naharayim by Pinhas Rutenberg ,
20960-479: The war effort. In the late Ottoman period a railway station was established near Iraq al-Manshiyya , however, this station was destroyed in World War I . In spring 1918, the tide was turned against the Ottomans when British forces were able to take control of some key points on the railway along the Yarmouk River , and cut off the Haifa extension from the rest of the Hejaz railway. When defeated in September 1918,
21120-505: The word Habiru or cognate Assyrian ebru , of identical meaning. One of the earliest references to the language's name as " Ivrit " is found in the prologue to the Book of Sirach , from the 2nd century BCE. The Hebrew Bible does not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language of the Hebrew people; its later historiography, in the Book of Kings , refers to it as יְהוּדִית Yehudit " Judahite (language)". Hebrew belongs to
21280-595: The world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non- first language , it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations , and by theologians in Christian seminaries . The modern English word "Hebrew" is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from
21440-513: Was "It Shines For All". Its website resumed activity on April 28, 2009. Despite the closure of the newspaper, The New York Sun website renewed activity on April 28, 2009, prompting some observers to consider the possible implications. Michael Calderone of Politico quoted Lipsky as saying not to read too much into the initial items since "...a business plan for the site is still in formation," and "... these are just some very, very early bulbs of spring (or late winter)." It only contained
21600-460: Was "a broadsheet that injects conservative ideology into the country's most influential philanthropic, intellectual and media hub; a paper whose day-to-day coverage of New York City emphasizes lower taxes, school vouchers and free-market solutions to urban problems; a paper whose elegant culture pages hold their own against the Times in quality and sophistication; a paper that breaks news and crusades on
21760-450: Was "to seize the local beat from which The New York Times was retreating as it sought to become a national newspaper". In 2004, Stoll characterized The Sun 's political orientation as " right-of-center ", and an associate of Conrad Black predicted in 2002 that the paper would be neoconservative in its outlook. Unsigned editorials in the paper advocated prosecuting Iraq War protestors for treason (2003), nominating Dick Cheney for
21920-548: Was 130 meters in length. As a result, the Jezreel Valley railway was cut off from the rest of the Hejaz line. On March 2, 1948, Haganah forces carried out bombing raids on railways in Mandate Palestine to disable them and prevent the quick transport of supplies and personnel by the Arab armies about to invade the Yishuv . The raid on a bridge near Geva , on the 44th km of the line, shut it down completely. The next major hit came on
22080-421: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language . The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of
22240-496: Was a printed daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, claiming descent from, and adopting the name, motto, and nameplate of, the earlier New York paper The Sun (1833–1950). It became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started in New York City in several decades. On November 2, 2021, The New York Sun was acquired by Dovid Efune, former CEO and editor-in-chief of
22400-405: Was accessible for free since August 2006. The Sun acquired the web address www.LatestPolitics.com in 2007. In a letter to readers published on the front page of the September 4, 2008, edition, Lipsky announced that the paper had suffered substantial losses and would "cease publication at the end of September unless we succeed in our efforts to find additional financial backing." In particular,
22560-459: Was called one of the two best in the United States. It also published the first regular wine column in a New York newspaper, "Along the Wine Trail", written by G. Selmer Fougner . In its first edition, the paper carried the solution to the last crossword puzzle of the earlier Sun published in 1950. The Sun was started anew in 2002 in the face of a long-term decline of newspapers in
22720-457: Was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea . Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy , rabbinic literature , intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature . The first dated book printed in Hebrew
22880-582: Was completed in 1912 and travelled from Daraa to Bosra in Syria, on a new 33 km route. In the end of 1912, an extension to Acre was completed from the Balad al-Sheikh station, totalling 17.8 km. The most important extension was a connection between Afula and Jerusalem . Its construction started in 1912, and the first 17 km section was completed at the beginning of 1913, connecting Afula with Jenin. Meissner's full plan never bore fruit however, because of
23040-612: Was converted from metre gauge to 1,050 mm gauge, to enable interoperation with the new Afula–Beersheba railway. Its section between Tulkarm and Lydda became known as the Eastern Railway and remained in active use until 1969, even though the rest of the Afula–Nablus–Tulkarm branch line ceased operation in the 1930s. Many more minor extensions were built, both under Ottoman and British rule, mostly close to Haifa, and served mainly industrial and military needs. Due to
23200-464: Was demolished during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. The remains of the railway station at Mas'udiya, originally the three-way junction on the Afula–Nablus–Tulkarm branch line, was the location chosen by Gush Emunim for the first Israeli settlement in Samaria . Evicted from Mas'udiya by the Israel Defense Forces several times between July 1974 and December 1975, and each time reassembling at
23360-601: Was dismantled and sold. An old steam locomotive and a single train car were the only remains, and are displayed at the Israel Railway Museum . A short section of the railway from the Haifa East rail yard to Nesher continued operating past 1951, having been converted by the British in the 1920s to dual gauge in order to allow standard gauge equipment to reach the Nesher cement factory, although this section too
23520-401: Was eventually abandoned in the 1990s. Freight service on the branch line between Tulkarm and Nablus, stopped during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine , recommenced in November 1944, the principal traffic being cereals from the ports to the mills at Nablus; the service was ultimately cancelled in July 1946 due to lack of demand. Following the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank in 1948,
23680-487: Was held announcing the resumption of works in March 1895. The new British contractor, Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company , restored the Jezreel dike and construction resumed. However, in 1900, the Ottomans began building the Hejaz railway , and saw the opportunity to convert the future Haifa–Damascus line to an extension thereof. In addition, because of financial disputes between the Ottoman authorities and DHP, and DHP's delaying of transporting construction materials for
23840-415: Was in the context of The Sun ' s reporting of the UN's central role in the Saddam Hussein Oil-for-Food scandal . In May 2007, Adweek columnist Tom Messner called The Sun "the best paper in New York", noting that " The New York Sun is a conservative paper, but it gets the respect of the left. The Nation ' s April 30 issue contains an article on the Sun ' s rise by Scott Sherman that
24000-399: Was mainly built from materials transported by trains using the valley railway. For that purpose, a minor extension was constructed from the main route to the construction site. In 1932, the railway was used to transport the concrete needed to build the Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline —38,000 tons of concrete were transported and laid on a 200 km route. The Jewish sector in Mandate Palestine was
24160-438: Was now a more significant written language than Aramaic within Judaea." This nationalist aspect was further emphasized during periods of conflict, as Hannah Cotton observing in her analysis of legal documents during the Jewish revolts against Rome that "Hebrew became the symbol of Jewish nationalism, of the independent Jewish State." The nationalist use of Hebrew is evidenced in several historical documents and artefacts, including
24320-467: Was previously completely isolated in terms of transportation, being several days' travel from Haifa, was now served by the Samakh station, which employed an ad hoc ferry that travelled a short distance in the Sea of Galilee . After World War I , a road connection was also made between Samakh and Tiberias, cutting travel time from Haifa to a few hours. The railway also had tourist potential. In 1906, Thomas Cook & Son travel agency advertised trips to
24480-406: Was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio ( Calabria , Italy) in 1475. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of a modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine , and subsequently
24640-470: Was revived beginning with the Haskalah movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Ha-Me'assef (The Gatherer), was published by maskilim in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad ) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. Hamagid , founded in Ełk in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Hayim Nahman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky ; there were also novels written in
24800-471: Was selling approximately 14,000 copies a day—while giving away between 66,000 and 85,000 a day. (The New York Daily News sold about 700,000 copies a day during that period.) It offered free subscriptions for a full year to residents in advertiser-desired zip codes; this and other uses of controlled circulation made it more attractive to advertisers, but further diminished its chances of ever becoming profitable. Similarly, The Sun ' s online edition
24960-479: Was suppressed. Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the People's Commissariat for Education as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself did not cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes ). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being
25120-437: Was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. There was also a geographic pattern: according to Bernard Spolsky , by the beginning of the Common Era, " Judeo-Aramaic was mainly used in Galilee in the north, Greek was concentrated in the former colonies and around governmental centers, and Hebrew monolingualism continued mainly in
25280-408: Was to a certain extent a pidgin . Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , owing to the ideology of the national revival ( שיבת ציון , Shivat Tziyon , later Zionism ), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of
25440-434: Was unveiled in Haifa, which stands to this day. The monument was built in Turkey at least two years before this ceremony, and was brought to Palestine by sea. With the construction of the valley train, it served mainly for delivering construction materials from the Haifa port for the continuing work on the main Hejaz railway line. The Hejaz railway was built for ideological, religious, and to a lesser extent military needs, and
25600-570: Was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Judah ha-Levi , Moses ibn Ezra and Abraham ibn Ezra , in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to
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