The Israeli government has decided to honor the Hebrew language by issuing a stamp that highlights Hebrew's uniqueness: its continued existence even after it ceased to be spoken, the treasures that were added to its vocabulary throughout the ages, and its modern revival as the everyday language of Israel.
The center of the stamp features a seedling whose leaves spell the word Ivrit (Hebrew). Its roots consist of all the earlier layers of the language found in four principal sources - the Bible, rabbinic literature, medieval writings and Modern Hebrew.
The phrase at the bottom of the stamp, "Ancient Language in a New Reality" was coined by Professor Ze'ev Ben-Hayyim, a prominent Hebrew linguist and one of the founders of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, serving as its president from 1973 to 1980. This phrase is taken from the title of his 1953 article, in which he discussed the special character of Modern Hebrew.
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