Israeli Sign Language

The Israeli Sign Language or ISL (local name: sfàt ha-simaním ha-israelít, abbriviation is pronounced shássi) is the most used sign language in the deaf community of Israel. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. The number of Israeli deaf people is around 10,000, though it is unclear how many of them use ISL as their main language.

The history of ISL begins in 1873 in Germany, where Marcus Reich, a Jewish German, opened a special school for Jewish deaf children. At the time, it was considered one of the best of its kind, and it attracted Jewish deaf children from all over the world, as well as non-Jews. In 1932 several teachers from this school opened the first school for Jewish deaf children in Jerusalem. The sign language used in the Jerusalemite school was based on the German sign language, however gradually, a local dialect emerged. Despite being a language in its own right, ISL is still quite similar to the German sign language.

During the 1940ies ISL became the language of a well established community of Jewish deaf people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Today ISL is the most used and taught sign language in Israel, and serves as the main mean of communication for the Israeli deaf community, which includes Jews, Muslim and Christian Arabs, and immigrants. Some Arab communities in Israel, particularly Bedouin communities, have sign languages of their own.

In addition to ISL, there is also Hebrew manually coded language used as a tool to teaching deaf children the Hebrew language, and for communication between deaf and hearing people.