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Israel hasn't stopped coining new Hebrew words, and the country's booming high-tech sector carries the language across the globe to places like New Jersey. Now, Hebrew even has its own holiday.

Last Sunday, the Cabinet of Israel set the 21st of Tevet (this year Jan. 7) birthday of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, known as the father of modern Hebrew, as "National Hebrew Day." The cabinet also established a committee to make recommendations on how to strengthen the everyday usage of Hebrew and a workshop to help government ministers improve their Hebrew skills. The cabinet is also considering ideas like a Hebrew conference and an annual NIS 70,000 prize in Ben-Yehuda's name for forerunners of the language. Ben-Yehuda, born in Lithuania in 1858, dedicated his life to reviving Hebrew from a language used almost exclusively in prayer books to one that would replace Yiddish and other regional dialects as the primary mode of communication for olim, Jews who move to Israel from different countries around the world. He raised his son Ben-Zion through Hebrew, edited Hebrew language newspapers including Hatzvi, Hashkafa, and HaOr, and in 1889 established the Hebrew Language Council, now called The Academy of the Hebrew Language. Ben-Yehuda also compiled the first modern Hebrew dictionary, the 17-volume "A Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew."

When she made aliyah from Russia the year the state of Israel formed in 1948, Ricki Budelman, principal of the Jersey Shore Jewish Academy in Howell, learned that right off the bat, the Jewish homeland would make the spread of Hebrew a top priority.

"We learned Hebrew immediately and that was the language we spoke, and it was very emphasized in all walks of life," Budelman said. "Right from the establishment of the Jewish state, Hebrew was stressed. Preschool, kindergarten, everything was in Hebrew."

Andrea Yonah, executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission in Trenton, said that Hebrew is permeating towns like Tenafly and Cherry Hill, where the language can be heard by simply walking on the street or going to the park, as Israeli high-tech startup companies and their executives move there. New Jersey is an attractive place for Israeli firms because of its highly educated workforce, its proximity to major markets like New York and Philadelphia, and the presence of Newark International Airport, she said.

"There is more exposure to modern Hebrew in certain communities in New Jersey, from Israelis traveling more and living abroad more," Yonah said.

The combination of technology and entrepreneurship, in fact, is becoming a very common source for new Hebrew terminology and will continue to do so as long as Israel is at the forefront of innovation, Yonah explained.

"It's a reflection on Israel's developing economy and that economy expanding internationally," Yonah said.

Creativity in modern Hebrew was on full display Dec. 30, when The Academy of the Hebrew Language gave the planet Uranus the name Oron, which means little light, and Neptune the name Rahab, for a sea monster mentioned in the Torah and Talmud (all seven other planets already had Hebrew names). The academy let the Israeli public choose the names in an online vote.

Created in 1953, the academy prescribes standards for modern Hebrew grammar, orthography, transliteration, and punctuation based upon the study of Hebrew's historical development. The academy's plenum consists of 23 members and an additional 15 academic advisors.

Yet the academy isn't the lone source for new Hebrew words. In January 2009, an article in the Haaretz newspaper on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza noted that: "Even prior to the operation, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) coined the term misgrad," a combination the Hebrew word "misgad," meaning mosque, and a Grad rocket.

Danny Goldberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Ocean County, recalled that when he lived for many years in his parents' apartment around the corner from Ben-Yehuda's old house in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot, Israeli schools stressed learning Hebrew language, grammar, and words far more than American schools stressed those same elements for English. That's because Hebrew was part of the "national psyche" in Israel, Goldberg said, and was transforming into a common language for olim.

Due in part to the federation's efforts, Goldberg said, Ocean County College (OCC) in Toms River will offer Hebrew 101 as soon as this spring or next fall, giving anyone from matriculated students to community members wishing to audit the class a chance to learn Hebrew they never had before.

Budelman said that all of the Jersey Shore Jewish Academy's Hebrew teachers are Israeli and speak modern Hebrew, while 8th-grade students take a trip to Israel. The school uses the Tal-Am Hebrew language curriculum for formal classroom instruction until 4th grade, and then moves onto the more advanced Tal-Sela for 5th and 6th grade and classic Israeli literature for grades 7 and 8.

"Once you walk into the classroom, it's a Hebrew sanctuary," Budelman said.

Budelman, who spoke German and Polish before moving to Israel, said that with all the olim, "I think it was very essential to have a central language that united everyone." For those purposes, it only made sense to go back to "our source," the Bible, she said.

Yonah, who lived in Israel from 1987-95, said that when she returned to the U.S. she made a concerted effort to maintain Hebrew as a mode of communication at home. She said she is amazed by how Hebrew was revived from a prayer language to one that is used in speech, song, and all other facets of life.

"I enjoyed soaking it all up and making Hebrew a language I could call my own," Yonah, who got her master's degree in language acquisition while in Israel, said.

In a paper titled Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922): Reviver of Spoken Hebrew that the The Academy of the Hebrew Language submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Project, authors Dr. Mordechay Mishor and Dena Ordan write: "Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a prime mover in the transformation of Hebrew from a dormant language of culture to a living, spoken language currently used in all spheres of modern life by millions of Israelis, and by Jews worldwide. Not only did he set a personal example by speaking Hebrew exclusively in his personal and family life, he was also instrumental in the public aspects of its revival."

Hebrew's revival is what makes the language particularly interesting to Princeton University sophomore Dana Hoffman, who takes Hebrew 101 with Prof. Esther Robbins. Hoffman said she looks back to how Jewish prayers are in Hebrew, giving the language a rich history; as far as English's history goes, Hoffman said she isn't aware of it.

"It has that whole ancient path to it," Hoffman said of Hebrew.

On a Birthright Israel trip in December, Hoffman said she got the first chance to put her Hebrew to practical use by reading street and store signs. Princeton sophomore Benjamin Cogan, who takes Hebrew 105 (the second level) with Robbins, learned Hebrew "a bit" at the Rodeph Sholom Day School in Manhattan growing up, but said that studying the language in college has enabled him to better understand what he reads in synagogue.

Cogan also went on a Birthright trip last month, and was humbled by watching Ethiopian immigrant children at an absorption center in Arad speak better Hebrew than he did.

"To see (Hebrew) in modern use was pretty interesting," Cogan said of his Israel trip.

According to Yonah, Hebrew is also fascinating because Arabic, Russian, English, and other words have been incorporated into the language.

"You hear all these languages, and they all kind of merge," Yonah said.