The foundations of the French Third Republic in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s thought

Abstract

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922), considered the ‘father of modern Hebrew’, had two countries, that of his birth and France. The latter is not only according to a bon mot from the end of the 19th century, but also because he spent part of his youth in Paris, including the period from 1879 until 1881, when he left for Israel, which he regarded as his country of birth. He is thought to have arrived in Paris in late 1877 or early 1878, in the immediate aftermath of the crisis of 16 May 1877. It was at that time that the basic laws of the Republic were passed in the Senate, following heated debates at which he was present as a writer for the Hebrew-language newspaper Ḥavaṣelet. His reports on those debates reflect his deep admiration for the French Republic and the national ideals of its republican government. For instance, he depicts Jules Ferry (1832-1893), minister of education, as a national hero opposing republican conspirers, monarchists, the Catholic Church and the Communards. It was between 1879 and 1881 that Jules Ferry proposed the education laws that would become the backbone of the French Republic, based on the principles of progress, laicism, national conscience and a single language, French (despite it being spoken by only half the population in 1879). Given that the first article in which Ben-Yehuda addressed the role of the Hebrew language in an eventual Jewish state was called ‘The Question of Education’ (Šeʾelat Ha-Ḥinuk), his reports on the Senate’s sessions have to be deemed a key document in the history of language policy in Israel.