Reviving Aramaic

Hoping to establish a clear identity separate from their Muslim neighbors, some Arab Israeli Christians are trying to revive Aramaic as a living language. Writes the always interesting Philologus in the Jewish Daily Forward:

Some of you may have been following the stories from Israel about a small group of Christian Arabs from the Galilee successfully petitioning the Israeli Ministry of Interior rather than Arabs. Led by a Greek Orthodox priest, Gabriel Nadaf, this same group has also been active in encouraging young Israeli Christian Arabs to volunteer for service in the Israeli army and has been vocal in its pro-Israel, anti-Arab sentiments. As a result, it has come under heavy fire from Israeli Arab politicians and some Israeli Christian church leaders, who have accused its members of being quislings.

A great part of their effort to establish a clear identity is their desire to recreate the long-dead Palestinian Aramaic language. Two groups totaling a few hundred thousand people, in northern Iraq (“eastern Aramaic”) and southwestern Syria (“western Aramaic”), still speak Aramaic but they are already bilingual and are being driven out of their homelands.

The prospects, Philologus explains, don’t look good. He suggests Hebrew instead.