Itamar Ben-Avi

Itamar Ben-Avi (Hebrew: איתמר בן אב"י, born Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda on 31 July 1882, died 8 April 1943) was the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. Eliezer is credited with reviving the Hebrew language and brought up Itamar to be the first native Hebrew speaker of modern times. Ben-Avi worked as a journalist (starting with his father's newspaper HaZvi), and as a Zionist activist.

Childhood

When he was very young, Itamar always wanted someone to play with, but his parents did not want him to speak with the other children who spoke different languages. He made friends with a dog which he called Maher, meaning "fast" in Hebrew. Ben-Zion grew up without any friends, as he was the only child who spoke Hebrew. Growing up, Ben Zion experienced many troubling situations, including the death of many of his siblings by diphtheria (which spread through Jerusalem and killed many children), and the death of his mother. He and his family were also ostracized from the ultra-orthodox community, due to their usage of Hebrew as a day-to-day language. The religious community saw this as sacrilege because they viewed it as the language of the Torah and prayers, and not for use in "idle chatter."

After his mother's death, his father married his late wife's sister, so Itamar's aunt became his stepmother. After his mother's death, he changed his name to Itamar, as that was the name his parents originally intended to give him. The name Itamar means "Island of Dates" and derives from the Hebrew root t-m-r (date or palm tree), which is a symbol of Zionism. As his last name, he used Ben-Avi. Avi (אב"י) is an acronym for Eliezer Ben Yehuda (as written in Hebrew) and also means "my father", so Ben-Avi means "my father's son".

Later life

At the age of 19, Ben-Avi left Jaffa port and set sail for Europe, where he studied at universities in Paris and Berlin. He returned to Palestine as a journalist, and published many successful newspapers. He was also an ardent Zionist and often took many roles in supporting and spreading the idea of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. His autobiography is still widely read in Israel.

He died in 1943, five years before the establishment of Israel. He had two children.