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Hebrew is a Semitic language that is also considered to be a language of the Jewish culture. It is an official language of Israel, used there and by Jewish people living in other parts of the world. It can trace its history back to the 10th century BCE, though it was only revived at the beginning of the 20th century. It is written using a Hebrew alphabet, with writing going from right to left. Both a more formal squared script and an everyday rounded, cursive script are used.
Leshon HaKodesh or The Holy Tongue is the term used by Jewish people to describe their language.
This page provides access to online courses, Hebrew/English/Hebrew dictionaries, current events, cultural information, grammar, vocabulary activities, tutorials, podcasts, Free and Fee-based software, other selected resources and general information.
If you are aware of other quality resources - courses or specific language aspects, let the webmasters know, so they can be considered for inclusion.
Hebrew Language Courses
- Elementary Hebrew
Requires iTunes to run the audio and video. Done from a seminary course. - Foundationstone : Learn Hebrew for Free
Free activities from the alphabet up. Links, resources. - Heb4You.com
‘Heb4You.com was created for those seeking an easy, fun, interactive and most important Free way to learn the Hebrew language. In Heb4You.com you will find a simple and unique structure that you can easly understand filled with colorful pictures and audio files. Heb4You.com is best for beginners and for those who want to expand or improve their vocabular’. - Hebrew Basic Course
Foreign Services Institute. PDF student text, downloadable mp3 tapes for audio presentations. - Instant Hebrew
‘Will teach you how to read Hebrew in just 120 minutes directly from your computer’.
Note this is Fee-based. - Learn Conversational Hebrew
‘The learn conversational Hebrew method, as the name suggests, is all about learning how to converse in a day to day situations. This is how it works : you get a video with a live conversation, you see subtitles for every sentence and phrases, and you get a downloadable PDF to help you practice with the transcript of the video with translation, plus you get all the vocabulary of the conversations so you will know what each and every word means and the other forms of the words [male, female, plural, singular]’. Fee-based but really quite cheap. - Learn to Speak Hebrew [Phrasebase]
Free, but needs registration. ‘The Phrasebase approach is to bypass all of the academic activities involved in fully learning a new language and instead, focus exclusively on learning to Speak and Comprehend your target language’. - Milingua
Courses, resources, Free sections. Everything is online. - Starting with Aleph
‘Starting With Aleph is an innovative course that teaches Hebrew reading and basic Jewish values in an interactive fashion’. Fee-based but quite small amounts especially to download the program direct. Only for Windows. - The Online Hebrew Tutorial
Lessons [with separate appendices], exercises [with answers], resources, further information. Download the tutorial.
Language Tools
Alphabet
- Alef-Bet - Hebrew Alphabet
‘The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, five of which use different forms at the end of a word. The chart below has the block, script, Rashi letters and the numeric values’. - All About the Hebrew Alphabet
Torah Tots. Letters, background, forms, sounds, writing styles, numerical values, more. Other Education Material is found here. - Alphabet, Hebrew [Hebraïque]
Audio, PDF files, cursive writing file. - Animated AlefBet Page
‘Point and click on any letter to view its animation page’. - Hebrew Alphabet
History, description, pronunciation, orthographic variants, numeric values, vowels, Gershayim, special sounds, unicode & HTML, references, links, more. From Wikipedia. - How to Learn the Hebrew Alphabet
Videocast. Approximately 5 minutes. - Interactive Hebrew - Alphabet
‘Click on the letter to hear how it sounds’. MP3 files to download for each. - Learn the Hebrew Letters
‘The first step in learning the Hebrew language is to learn the names of the letters. The sound of the letter is usually the beginning sound of the letter’s name’. - The Hebrew Alphabet
Consonants, audio presentations, downloads [PDF], flashcards, script styles, more.
Dictionaries
- Davar - Hebrew Dictionary
Downloadable, Freeware dictionary. - Dictionaries
75 Hebrew to … dictionaries, Bilingual English/Hebrew dictionary. - Hebrew Dictionaries
Links to dictionaries, glossaries. Also links to Hebrew grammar. - Hebrew English Dictionary [Babylon]
Multiple dictionaries in one. ‘Contains words, phrases, abbreviations & acronyms, terms from a variety of subjects such as Medicine, Electronics, Zoology, Business, Computers, Religion, etc.. American and British spelling’. - Learn Hebrew with Pictures and Audio
Three groups, index and videos. - Lexington Hebrew Dictionary
Dictionary plus links to several others. - Online Hebrew Dictionary
Bi-directional English and Hebrew. - Milo : English Hebrew Dictionary
Gain images, a definition or both. - My Hebrew Dictionary
Done in topics rather than alphabetically. Select topic and number of items on the page. Has other links and translator.
General Sites
- Akhlah
‘The Jewish Children’s Learning Network’. Multiple sections covering Learn Hebrew, holidays, learn about Israel, Jewish heroes and traditions. In the learn Hebrew section there are Worksheets, a Children’s Dictionary, Aleph Bet, Lessons, more. - Digital Dialects : Hebrew
‘Features Free to use online games for learning languages. Language resources include games for learning phrases, numbers, useful words, spelling, verb conjugation and alphabets. Games use Macromedia Flash Player’. - Hebrew
The Alphabet, lessons on grammar and vocabulary. From Wikibooks. - Hebrew for Me
An ‘interactive, instructional site for conversational Hebrew [that] is fun’. - Hebrew Language
History, Hebrew in Judaism, Modern Hebrew, development, Modern Israeli Hebrew, Aramaic, Phonology, Grammar, writings system, references, links. From Wikipedia. - Jim Becker’s Hebrew Page
Collection of links for Hebrew. Culture, grammar, games, dictionaries, search engines, more. - Learn Hebrew Phrases with Audio
‘Incorporates 54 topics with 1 200 Hebrew phrases and sentences. The Hebrew phrases are presented as images with nciku [vowels]. There are English translations and transliterations. The high quality audio was created in a sound studio. The site includes 152 Hebrew study sheets for learning offline’. - Morim
‘Morim was created by a group of teachers to bring Hebrew language and culture to a wide audience. Find tools and books to study or teach Hebrew, links to Israeli websites, media sites, discs and cd-roms, as well as an on-line course with a database of printable files in PDF format’ and more. - The Hebrew Language
‘Learn Hebrew Resources’. Resources range from the Alphabet to Hebrew writing. 16 sections included with Tutorials, texts, blogs, games and more. - Wikijunior : Languages - Hebrew
Writing system used, how many people speak the language, where it is spoken, the history of the language, some famous authors or poets using the language, basic words in the language, a song/poem/story to learn in this language, references.
Grammar
- Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar
‘This grammar focuses on Biblical Hebrew only’. First published in 1813. - Hebrew Grammar
Multiple sections. Pronunciation, vocabulary expressions, grammatical areas. - Hebrew Grammar [Wikipedia]
Note on examples, history of studies, sentence structure, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, miscellaneous, references, bibliography,other links. - Learn Hebrew Verbs
Select a verb, select verb root, gender, tense, singular/plural. Graphics and text presentation. Extensive list provided.
Vocabulary
- English Hebrew Dictionary
‘This website is for anyone looking to increase their Hebrew vocabulary. Here you will find over 10 000 thematically organised terms in a broad range of topics such as education, health, food, family, clothes, arts, economy, politics, sciences, law and much more !’ - English-Hebrew Vocabulary Quizzes
‘Quizzes to Help You Learn and Review Vocabulary’. - eTeacher Hebrew
‘It has been my goal to create a site that would help you learn new Hebrew words easily. 46 learning topics with over 1 700 Hebrew words and phrases’.
Formerly listed as Learn Hebrew. - Hebrew Vocabulary
The Body, clothes, animals, countries, adjectives, family, colours. - Hebrew Vocabulary Guide
Audio files for all sections. In Hebrew but with English translations either direct or on mouse over.
Other Resources
General Sites
- Ancient Hebrew Resource Centre
Introduction, alphabet, vocabulary, language, culture, learn Hebrew, lessons with audio, video, more. - Free Online Hebrew Classes
Lessons, alphabet, vocabulary, more. About.com. - Hebrew : A Living Language
Resources, activities covering Hebrew language, links to other sites. - Hebrew Language Resources
Resources and a good collection of links. - Hebrew Resources.com
Resources, links, more. Some Free, most Fee-based. - Hebrew Today
‘HebrewToday offers easy-to-read Hebrew newspapers by subscription. Our publications are perfect for children and adults, beginners or advanced readers, who wish to learn Hebrew in a fun, effective and engaging way. Each issue is available with audio narration in clear, correct Hebrew pronunciation, as well as Hebrew-English dictionaries and English explanations for each article’. - Hebrew Virtual Keyboard
- Jewish Internet Guide
‘Annotated weblinks for Hebrew’. - Learn Hebrew Sites
A fairly lengthy listing of sites for all aspects of the Hebrew language. - Links to Cool Hebrew Sites
Sites for language and software. Free and Fee-based.
Podcasts, Blogs, Videos
- HebrewPod101
‘Learn Hebrew with Free podcasts’. - Hebrew Podcasts
‘Enrich your mind with self-study lessons of contemporary Hebrew. Each lesson has a short Hebrew dialogue that’s explained and further practiced’. - Learn Hebrew Pod
Multiple audio lessons at different levels. Well worth using. - Speak Hebrew with Moshe and Leah
‘This animated Ulpan is a first step in understanding Hebrew speech. Ulpan is a word derived from Aramaic - it means learn.’
Software
- At Home with Hebrew
Free download to develop beginner skills with the Hebrew language. - FoundationStone
‘Application, support materials designed to allow the most efficient learning of its Hebrew vocabulary. The Online Hebrew Tutorial [see above] is part of the download’. Not for young children. - Rosetta Stone Hebrew Programs
Software programs from Rosetta Stone. Fee-based.