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Hebrew is a Semitic language that can be traced back to 2000 years BCE and was spoken by the inhabitants of the land of Israel.

From around 200 CE until the 19th century, Hebrew was mainly used in a Jewish religious context. The language was revitalised in the course of the Zionist movement in the 20th century.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the main initiator of the revitalisation and thus the "inventor" of modern Hebrew, Ivrit, used many words and grammatical structures from the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew of the Mishnah for the "new" language. He also added words from other languages and invented many new words to meet the demands of modern times.

Through Ivrit, a common language was created for many Jewish people with different mother tongues, in different cultures around the world and in Israel.