Cultural Consequence: Aramaic-speaking Zionists?

[Jackson Lennock]

What if the Zionists had chosen Judeo-Aramaic as their preferred national tongue, rather than a revived Hebrew?

In many ways it serves the same function as Hebrew. It is (1) written in Hebrew script, (2) neutral among different Jewish subgroups, (3) associated with a history of Jewish sovereignty, and (4) a language which was already partly used in pidgin as a second tongue for different Jews just as Aramaic was.

But the key distinction (which is why I phrase this as a cultural what if) is that there are still other peoples who speak Aramaic. It is the language of the Armenian bible, and dialects of Aramaic were spoken by Assyrians, other Syriac Christian communities, some Maronite communities still spoke it as a native tongue until the late nineteenth century, and some small Christian villages in the Judean Hills still spoke Aramaic even in the mid-20th century.

Plausibly, the development of Judeo-Aramaic resources and culture could perhaps spill over into benefiting the intellectuals of various Christian ethnic groups into their own linguistic education and revivals. What would happen if that were the case?

 

[Wendell]

It does not change much in the grand scheme of things if things are otherwise basically OTL in 1948 and the early years after the formation of Israel. Maybe Israel tries to reach out to Aramaic communities more that are not Jewish, and perhaps Aramaeans relocate to Israel after Arab governments declare these minorities to be Zionist fifth columns. The Maronite saying "After Saturday comes Sunday" may carry more credence.

 

[Jackson Lennock]

It does not change much in the grand scheme of things if things are otherwise basically OTL in 1948 and the early years after the formation of Israel. Maybe Israel tries to reach out to Aramaic communities more that are not Jewish, and perhaps Aramaeans relocate to Israel after Arab governments declare these minorities to be Zionist fifth columns. The Maronite saying "After Saturday comes Sunday" may carry more credence.

I've spoken to Palestinian Christians who've told me the same thing has been uttered around them.

Much of the anti-Christian politics does primarily seem to be directed at decidedly non-Arab Christians though (Maronites, Assyrians, etc.). The theory that Arab Islamism is a successor ideology to Pan-Arabism (with secular Arabs of muslim background having a different historical understanding of their ethnic identity than Arab Christians do) holds much weight.


Menachem Begin OTL in Operation Peace for Galilee (the 1982 Lebanon War) was willing to accept some Palestinians from Lebanon (all the Christians, some muslims) given that it was expected that the Nationalist Camp's objective in Lebanon was to send most Palestinians to Iraq and Syria (with ~20,000 remaining in Lebanon). Israel taking in some additional migration in the region based on cultural affinities seems plausible. Some ~70,000 Lebanese (Maronite mostly, but also Orthodox, Druze, and some Shia who had Druze and Maronite commanding officers) moved to Israel after the 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon. Most moved to Europe or America by choice, but some remained in Israel and have been part of a process of cultural-linguistic revival in the town of Jish near the Lebanese border.