Ben-Avi, Ithamar. Avi

(BEN-YEHUDAH, ELIEZER)

“Yeruçalaym” (i.e. Jerusalem)

1927 (“X Le-Hatzharat Balfur”)

FIRST EDITION. Illustrated plates, folding-plate and glossary. Foreword with a rudimentary outline of the author’s innovative use of Hebrew

A biography of Eliezer Ben-Yehudah by his son, Ithamar, putatively the first Modern Jew whose mother-tongue was exclusively Hebrew. The present work displays the author’s bold linguistic innovation, writing in Hebrew - entirely in Latin characters, testifying to Ben-Avi’s political and cultural wish to transform the Jewish people into an independent “Western” nation. See EJ, IV cols.469-70