1914 as an inflection point: Arabic teaching in the Jewish community in Palestine

Abstract

The late Ottoman period in Palestine witnessed the establishment of some prominent Hebrew educational institutions which, in addition to Hebrew, taught Arabic and other languages. Arabic was primarily taught in Arabic by native speakers – either Palestinians of Muslim or Christian origin, or Jewish-Sephardic teachers (from Palestine or neighboring countries) who were fluent in both the language and the culture. In light of pedagogical developments in the field of Arabic studies in the Middle East, and the widespread instruction of Arabic in Jewish schools, an Arabic-language pedagogical and educational elite developed in Jewish schools in Palestine, composed of Jewish and Arab natives to the region. Yet political and demographic changes transformed Arabic-language study at the start of the century. Whereas at the close of the 19th century, Jews constituted 3% of the population, they had increased to 10% by 1914, and included more and more European Jews as well as Jews who immigrated to Palestine as part of the Zionist movement’s efforts. In other words, for the first time in history, on the eve of World War I most Jews in the country were immigrants from Europe who represented new national Zionist ideologies. Their attitudes toward Arabic instruction were different, their pre-school capabilities in Arabic were nonexistent, and their presence transformed relations between Jews and Arabs alongside Arabic pedagogy in the Jewish school system. Thus, 1914 symbolizes the end of an era of Arabic-language instruction dominated by individuals intimately familiar with Arabic language and culture and ushered in the demise of the Arabic-Sephardic Jewish leadership that had been instrumental to Jewish Arabic-language instruction until that time.