Reuven Alkalai

Reuven Alkalai, a journalist, writer, lexicographer, translator and linguist was born in Jerusalem in July 1907. He was the son of Avraham Alkalai from Nis, Serbia and Rachel nee Sporta and brother to Sarina and Yaakov. The origins of the Alkalai family are from Spain (Al Kalah means fortress in Arabic), from the descendents of Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai who heralded the Zionist movement. Around 1900 Avraham Alkalai and Rachel Sporta moved to the Land of Israel. They lived in the Old City and after awhile moved to Beit Hordna near Mahane Yehuda. Avraham taught French at the "Alliance" school and later became a merchant. As a child Reuven studied in the Lemel School for Boys and then in Doresh Zion School under the direction of Yosef Baran Meuches. When he completed high school he studied at the David Yellin Teacher's Seminary which he completed in 1926 when he became a teacher. When it was difficult to find work he made a living from doing odd jobs. During the British Mandate period, at the beginning of the 1930's, he was appointed by Edwin Samuel (the son of Lord Herbert Samuel) to translate from English to Hebrew and vice versa, for the Mandatory Press Office. He advanced in the position and became the manager of the Office until the establishment of the State of Israel. Because of his work he became an important liaison between the Mandatory Government and the institutions of the Jewish Yishuv. After the establishment of the State he continued working in the Government Press Office. Between the years 1950-1974 he was the editor of the Government Yearbook. Over the years he published about 23 volumes of the yearbook. Starting in 1962 he served also as the coordinator of the Government Names Committee which was responsible to give (renew) Hebrew names to settlements and sites in Israel. From a young age he was a collector of words and consistently searched for proverbs, fables. He renewed many words in the Hebrew language. Alkalai wrote and edited the Complete English-Hebrew dictionary which was published in 1958. For many years it was the leading dictionary in Israel for learning English. He married Sarah Pardes (1914) in 1947. She was the daughter of Rabbi Eliyahu Pardes, the Sephardic Rabbi of Ramat Gan ad the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Jerusalem. The couple had two children: Avraham (Avi) and Yaffa. Reuven Alkalai died in January 1976. His wife passed away in 2014. In January 2020 a book on the life of the lexicographer, Reuven Alkalai, called, 'Ozar Milim ' was published. It was written by Semadar Barak. (Published by Yediot Aharonot, Hemed Books and the Academy for the Hebrew language). This photo collection was brought to the Yad Ben Zvi Archives by the family. The photos document the activities of their father throughout the years. Read more