Masechet Baba Technika, with the commentary of Rashi and Tosfot…, [by Kadish Yehuda Leib Silman]. Published by “Snunit”, Jerusalem, humorous essay about the language war at the Technion in Haifa [c.1910].
Humorous essay in Talmudic style, about the language war at the Technion in Haifa. At the beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was the teaching language in six out of 29 organized schools in Eretz Israel. In 1908, it was decided to establish the first professional high school in the country, from which the Technion later emerged. The new institution was named “Technikum” and was intended to train professionals. The “Ezra” company, a non-Zionist Jewish-German organization, donated most of the money to the institution, and its management, led by Dr. Paul Nathan, decided that German, and not Hebrew, would be the primary language of instruction, primarily because, from a practical standpoint, German would be advantageous as an accepted language in science. Hebrew as a spoken language was relatively new, and there was a great shortage of technical and scientific vocabulary and tools that would enable scientific education in this language. A dispute arose and spread throughout the entire Yishuv, led by the Teachers and Students Association that joined in. A strike broke out at the “Ezra” institutions, and protest activities were carried out.
Against the backdrop of the aforementioned “language war” the work before us was published in the style of the Talmud, and it ridicules and satirizes both sides of the dispute. Upon its release, the German consul ordered the work to be banned, and the authorities prepared to confiscate it from the printing houses, but the publisher managed to sell the entire edition before the order was executed.
24 leaves. Good condition.
