In partnership with
PRESENTS A LANDMARK INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
MARKING 100 YEARS SINCE THE PASSING OF MODERN HEBREW VISIONARY ELIEZER BEN-YEHUDA
AND THE START OF THE INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES (2022-2032)
With the participation of dignitaries and preeminent specialists including the President and Immediate Past President of the Academy of the Hebrew Language,
Professor Aharon Maman and Professor Moshe Bar-Asher
Following successful past B’nai B’rith symposiums at UNESCO on two major Jewish diasporic languages, Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish, this program was a landmark event in a United Nations setting, critically highlighting Jews’ heritage and remarkable contributions to the international community, the historic roots of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and the extraordinary revival in our time of one of the world’s oldest languages.
November 15, 2022 (This event has concluded)
UNESCO Headquarters in Paris or Online:
9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Paris
3 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Washington, D.C.
5 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Buenos Aires
8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. London
10 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Jerusalem
6 p.m. – 3:30 a.m. Melbourne
Registration is closed. For more information, please email UN@bnaibrith.org
This program has concluded. Recordings of the event are available in English, French and Hebrew.
PROGRAM
Listed in Paris Time
TIME
09:00 a.m. – 09:30 a.m.
SESSION
On-site arrival UNESCO,
125 Avenue de Suffren, 75007 Paris (Room IV)
09:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Welcome remarks and keynote addresses
Master of ceremony: Mr. David Michaels, Director of UN and Intercommunal Affairs, B’nai B’rith International (USA)
Welcome remarks by
- B’nai B’rith International: Mr. Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO (USA)
- Representative of UNESCO
Opening keynote address
- Prof. Moshe Bar-Asher, Fourth President, Academy of the Hebrew Language (Israel)
“Modern Hebrew and its Heritage from Generations Past”
Musical interlude: Dahlia Dumont (song and accordion)
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Session I: Philology of Hebrew
Moderator: Prof. Cyril Aslanov, Academy of the Hebrew Language, Versailles/Aix-Marseille Université / Institut Universitaire de France (France)
- Prof. Mohamed Elmedlaoui, IURS / Mohammed V University, Rabat (Morocco)
“Multilingualism, Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic in the Maghreb: the Potting Soil of the First School of Systematic Comparative Linguistics (9th – 11th Centuries)” - Prof. Stefan Schorch, Professor of Biblical Studies, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
“Shared Heritage and Linguistic Divergence: The Samaritan Dialect of Hebrew as Identity Marker” - Prof. Paola Mollo, Lecturer, Pontificio Istituto Biblico (Italy)
“‘And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech’: Assimilation, Diversity and Language Consciousness in the Hebrew Bible” - Prof. Fritz Werner, Professor (Emeritus) of Hebrew, University of Vienna (Austria)
“A New Approach to Arranging a Grammar of Israeli Hebrew”
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee break
11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Session II: The use of Hebrew in the Jewish exile
Moderator: Prof. Francine Cicurel, Professor Emerita of Sciences of the Languages, University Sorbonne Nouvelle (France)
- Prof. Aharon Maman, Bialik Chair for Hebrew Language, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; President, Academy of the Hebrew Language (Israel)
“Three Channels Through Which Hebrew was Transmitted Along the 2nd-19th Centuries” - Prof. José Martinez Delgado, Professor of Hebrew Language, Department of Semitic Studies, University of Granada (Spain)
“The Revitalization of the Hebrew Language in Al-Andalus” - Prof. Joseph Tedghi, Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations – INALCO, Paris (France)
“The Evolution of the Hebrew Language in the Diaspora: Written and Oral” - Prof. Lewis Glinert, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (USA)
“Was Talking Hebrew a Diaspora Routine? An Anthropological Angle”
12:45 a.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Lunch break
2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Musical interlude: Dahlia Dumont (song and accordion)
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Session III: The reemergence of the Hebrew language as a lingua franca
Moderator: Prof. Paola Mollo, Lecturer, Pontificio Istituto Biblico Roma (Italy)
- Prof. Cyril Aslanov, Academy of the Hebrew Language, Versailles/Aix-Marseille Université/Institut Universitaire de France (France)
“From Yiddish to Hebrew at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” - Prof. Ida Zatelli, Professor (Emerita) of Hebrew Language and Literature, University of Florence (Italy)
“The Importance of the Bible for the Rebirth of Hebrew as a Native Lingua Franca” - Prof. Pablo-Isaac Kirtchuk-Halevi, Académie de Versailles (France)
“Decisive Factors in the Success of the Struggle for the Revival of Hebrew: Retrospective and Prospective” - Dr. Avshalom Kor, Galei Tzahal radio (Israel)
“Ambiguity in Ancient and Modern Hebrew”
3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Session IV: Lessons learnt from the revival of Hebrew; partnering with international cooperation mechanisms and normative frameworks
Moderator: Dr. Marielza Oliveira, Director for Partnerships and Operational Programme Monitoring, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO
Panel I: Partnership and cooperation
- Dr. Marielza Oliveira, Director for Partnerships and Operational Programme Monitoring, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO
“2003 Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace” - Dr. Valts Ernštreits, Director, University of Latvia, Livonian Institute (Latvia) and Co-chair of the Global Task Force for Making A Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages
“International Decade of Indigenous Language 2022-2032” - Prof. Moshe Koppel, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Bar-Ilan University; founder and director of DICTA: The Israel Center for Text Analysis (Israel), via video
4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Break
4:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Session IV: Lessons learnt from the revival of Hebrew; partnering with international cooperation mechanisms and normative frameworks
Moderator: Mr. Alan Schneider, Esq., Director, B’nai B’rith World Center – Jerusalem (Israel)
Panel II: Lessons
- Dr. Jeremy Benstein, Author of Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World (Israel)
“Is Modern Hebrew Unique? What Can and Can’t be Learned from the Revival of Hebrew” - Ms. Gail Hareven, Author (Israel)
“Imagining Hebrew, Imagining in Hebrew” - Prof. Ali Wated, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Beit Berl College, Kfar Sava (Israel)
“On the Hebrew Elements of the Arabic of the Arabs in Israel” - Prof. José Ramón Magdalena Nom de Déu, Professor (Emeritus), Faculty of Philology, Department of Semitic Philology (Hebrew-Aramaic), University of Barcelona (Spain)
“The Revival of Modern Hebrew in Eretz Yisrael and the Possible Influence on the Standardization of the Basque and Catalan Languages in Spain”
5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Closing keynote address
- Prof. Geoffrey Khan, Professor of Hebrew, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge (UK)
“The Transmission of Biblical Hebrew as a Living Tradition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages”
Conclusion of the symposium
- Mr. Stéphane Teicher, Permanent Representative of B’nai B’rith International to UNESCO