100 Years Since the First Hebrew Atlas
Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Dr. Shmuel Perlman invented a host of new names and terms to compile the first atlas in the Hebrew language — about a quarter of a century before the State of Israel was founded. Some of them survived to this day, some did not succeed in modern Hebrew. The work of publishing the "National Atlas" was part of the nation-building process. Among the maps: the "Diaspora" map of the Jewish people at the time and the "Migration and Settlement" map of peoples in history. A glimpse into the days of the revival of the Hebrew language.
Do you want to go sailing in the Ashkenaz Sea, or do you prefer a climbing trip in the mountains of Helvetia? If these names mean nothing to you, and if you haven't found them in the atlas in your home — it means you don't have the first Hebrew atlas, which was published exactly 100 years ago, and on whose cover appears as one of the two editors none other than Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
"This was the first time that a book of this kind was published, which includes maps in Hebrew, explanations of geographical terms, geographical descriptions, etc., all written in their original Hebrew," says Dr. Gil Weissblei, director of the Jabotinsky Institute archive. "This atlas has enormous importance also in terms of the revival of the Hebrew language, the innovation of terms — not all of which stood the test of time and were accepted — and the determination of geographical terms and names."
Next Sunday, September 6, the Jabotinsky Institute will hold a special seminar to mark the 100th anniversary of the atlas (at 18:00 at the Brodt Center in Tel Aviv). To the question "Where is the Ashkenaz Sea?" we can answer already now: that is, with a Hebrew name, Jabotinsky chose to call the North Sea that stretches to the coast of Germany, which is Ashkenaz in our sources.
"The worldview according to which Jabotinsky determined Hebrew names for various places in the world, as well as the way he innovated geographical terms, are fascinating in themselves, and they are of course connected not only to his interest in languages — as someone who mastered ten languages or more — but also to a strong national worldview."
In cases where a Hebrew name was not available, Jabotinsky was forced to choose between several foreign names. Even then, he had a structured doctrine regarding the method of selection: "In examining the names, we generally proceeded according to their pronunciation in the language of the local inhabitants," Jabotinsky determined in the introduction to the atlas. It should be said, he determined not only for his first readers — but also for generations to come, also for our days. Only thanks to him, the state of Illinois is still called Illinois in the Hebrew language, the state of Arkansas — Arkansas, and the city of Chicago — Chicago.
Latin is as ancient as Hebrew
The difficulty that the editor of the first Hebrew atlas faced when he came to give a name to Switzerland was greater. In this country, four different languages are used, and in each of them the name of the country is pronounced differently. Jabotinsky knew that in Hebrew literature this land was known by its German name (Schweiz) or its Russian name (Shveytsariya), but in the end he decided to call it "Helvetia," by its Latin name. Why go specifically to Latin? Jabotinsky had a brilliant explanation: after all, Latin is an ancient language and a daughter of the Mediterranean — just like the Hebrew language!
The name "Helvetia" did not take root in spoken Hebrew, and was pushed aside in favor of "Switzerland." Other names from Jabotinsky's workshop were indeed accepted and established. Either way, he was far ahead of Donald Trump in understanding that the name of a bay or a lake not only describes reality, but also determines consciousness.
Sponsored by German publishers
"In many respects, all the atlases that appeared in Hebrew afterwards followed this atlas, and constituted a development and update of it," says Dr. Weissblei. "Some see in it not only importance in its being the first book of its kind in the Hebrew language, but also an unprecedented and original attempt to represent what the geography of a people without a territory of its own looks like. Although the atlas was initially intended to be a useful book for study for students of Hebrew schools — who until then had used German, English, and sometimes Russian atlases — the scope of the project grew while it was being carried out."
The work of publishing the "National Atlas" was an inseparable part of the nation-building process, which Jabotinsky was engaged in and worked to realize on all fronts. However, in the eyes of Dr. Weissblei, the work of his hands faithfully reflects the fact that the Jewish people — just like Jabotinsky himself at that time — was a people without one fixed and defined territory, a people scattered among seven seas.
Two of the original and particularly interesting maps in this atlas are the "Diaspora" map, which includes information about the Jewish population all over the world, including the ratio (in percentages) between the Jewish population and the general population, movements of migration and wandering; and the "Migration and Settlement" map, which presents the migration of peoples throughout human history, from ancient times to the modern era, which serves to express the migration movement of the Jewish people in a much broader context. In this map, data defined by Jabotinsky as "peoples or languages that have passed over the face of the earth," that is, peoples and languages that have become extinct, is also reflected.
Although this is a national atlas, it is clearly not just a "Jewish atlas," and it includes all the information included in any high-level atlas — such as areas and climates of different countries and more. Jabotinsky made use of a wide variety of information accumulated and collected by Jewish scholars who dealt with geography before him, such as Avraham Yaakov Braver (the father of the cartographer Moshe Braver), as well as information collected by Aharon Aharonson, the founder of NILI.
"The first Hebrew atlas was the first publishing project of its kind, complex and most impressive in terms of its production as a print product, and especially the enormous technical challenge of printing maps that incorporate Hebrew texts," Dr. Weissblei concludes with enthusiasm. "To a large extent, the enormous achievement of producing it at such a high level was thanks to the extraordinary cooperation between Jabotinsky and his partner, Shlomo Salzman, and German publishers who responded to the challenge of producing the first Hebrew atlas with great willingness."
