The European Jews digging up a dead Middle language – Hebrew – and making it their language is as strange as Indonesian Muslims abandoning their own languages and replacing them with Arabic. The true language of the European Jews was Yiddish but they got rid of it. Hebrew is so hard on the ear, I always find myself shutting off anyone speaking in Hebrew because it is so irritating to the ear to listen to.
Theodor Herzl Complete Diaries – Vol 1 – page 170
Someone may think that our lack of a common language would present difficulties. After all, we cannot converse in Hebrew. Who among us knows enough Hebrew to ask for a railroad ticket in this language? We have no such people.