{{Infobox language

| name = Israeli Sign Language

| altname = Shassi, ISL

| nativename = שפת הסימנים הישראלית <br>''śfàt ha-simaním ha-yiśre'elít''<br>שס"י ''shássi'' <small>[abbr.]</small>

| states = [[Israel]]

| speakers = 10,000

| date = 2003

| ref = <ref name=MSPA/>

| familycolor = sign

| fam1 = [[German Sign Language family]]

| iso3 = isr

| glotto = isra1236

| glottorefname = Israeli Sign Language

'''Israeli Sign Language''', also known as '''Shassi'''<ref>{{cite web |last1=גויכמן |first1=רפאלה |title=גילי בית הלחמי כובשת את הרשת בשפת הסימנים |url=https://www.themarker.com/advertising/MAGAZINE-1.6492832 |website=The Marker |access-date=1 June 2021 |language=Hebrew}}</ref> or '''ISL''', is the most commonly used [[sign language]] by the [[deaf]] [[community]] of [[Israel]]. Some other sign languages are also used in Israel, among them [[Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language]].

== History ==

The history of ISL goes back to 1873 in [[Germany]], where [[Marcus Reich]], a [[History of the Jews in Germany|German Jew]], opened a special school for Jewish deaf children. At the time, it was considered one of the best of its kind, which made it popular with 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 influenced by the [[German Sign Language]] (DGS), but other sign languages or signing systems brought by immigrants also contributed to the emerging language, which started out as a [[pidgin]]. A local [[creole language|creole]] gradually emerged, which became ISL.<ref name=MSPA>{{cite book|last1= Meir |first1= Irit |last2= Sandler |first2= Wendy |last3= Padden |first3= Carol |author-link3= Carol Padden |last4= Aronoff |first4= Mark |author-link4= Mark Aronoff |year= 2010 |chapter= Chapter 18: Emerging sign languages |chapter-url= http://sandlersignlab.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/pdf/EMERGING_SIGN_LANGUAGES.pdf |editor1-last= Marschark |editor1-first= Marc |editor2-last= Spencer |editor2-first= Patricia Elizabeth |title= Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0mmJAgAAQBAJ |volume= vol. 2 |location= New York |publisher= [[Oxford University Press]] |isbn= 978-0-19-539003-2 |oclc= 779907637 |access-date= 2016-11-05 }}</ref>

Shassi still shares many features and vocabulary items with DGS, although it is too far apart today to be considered a dialect of the latter.

During the 1940s, Shassi 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 mode of communication for most deaf people in Israel, including Jewish, [[Arab citizens of Israel|Muslim and Christian Arabs]], [[Druze]], and [[Bedouin]]s. Some Arab, Druze, and Bedouin towns and villages have sign languages of their own.

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

== Deaf community ==

{{more citations needed section|date=May 2019}}

The beginnings of an established Deaf community in Israel started with the 1936 Tel-Aviv [[Purim]] parade, when groups from Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Haifa met for the first time. This led to the creation of the Association of the Deaf in Israel.<ref name="Currents-Keller">{{cite web |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/june-27-helen-keller-and-the-jews-2/ |title=June 27: Helen Keller and the Jews |date=June 26, 2016 |first=Lawrence |last=Bush |work=Jewish Currents}}</ref> The first official board was elected in 1944, with Moshe Bamberger as its first president. The association organized lectures, trips, and holiday celebrations. The community grew as refugees from World War Two fled to Israel, and the association helped new arrivals integrate into the Israeli community by helping them learn Israeli Sign Language and helping them find work. The association completed their Tel-Aviv headquarters, Helen Keller House, in 1958.<ref name="Currents-Keller"/>

== Education ==

{{unreferenced section|date=May 2019}}

The first school for the deaf was established in 1932, a strict boarding school in Jerusalem that taught [[oralism]]. Two other oralist schools were established in Tel-Aviv in 1941 and Haifa in 1949. The emphasis on oralism began to change in the 1970s, when Izchak Schlesinger began to research ISL, and with Israel hosting the Fourth International Conference on Deafness in 1973. 

==Manual alphabet==

The [[manual alphabet]] is quite similar to that of [[American Sign Language]]. The correspondences are as follows:

*א {{ayin}} as ASL 'A', but with thumb extended

*ב ''b'' as ASL 'B'

*ג ''g'' as ASL 'G'

*ד ''d'' as ASL 'D', but with fingers 3, 4, 5 flat and tips touching tip of thumb

*ה ''h'' as ASL 'H'

*ו ''v'' as ASL '1'

*ז ''z'' as ASL 'Z'

*ח ''ch'' as ASL '8', but with only index and pinkie extended

*ט ''t'' as ASL 'F'

*י ''j'' as ASL 'I'

*כ ''k'' as ASL 'C'

*ל ''l'' as ASL 'L'

*מ ''m'' as ASL 'M'

*נ ''n'' as ASL 'N'

*ס ''s'' as ASL 'S'

*ע {{ayin}} as bent ASL 'V' (like 'X', but with two bent fingers)

*פ ''p'' as ASL 'P'

*צ ''ts'' as ASL '3'

*ק ''q'' as ASL 'K'

*ר ''r'' as ASL 'R'

*ש ''sh'' as ASL 'W'

*ת ''t'' as ASL 'T'

Unexpected correspondences are ASL 'F' for Hebrew ט ''tet'' (analogous to Greek ''theta'' becoming Cyrillic ''[[fita]]''), '1' rather than 'U' or 'V' for ו ''vav'', old-fashioned 'C' and 'K' rather than 'K' and 'Q' for כ ''kaf'' and ק ''qof'' (both are pronounced like an English 'k' or hard 'c'), '3' for צ ''tsade'', and 'W' for ש ''shin'' (reflecting its shape).

If needed, one may indicate the final forms of letters, ך ם ן ף ץ, by moving the hand downward. To specify שׂ ''sin'', the hand is turned to face the signer (showing the back of the hand).

==See also==

* [[Moshe Shem Tov]]

* [[The Institute for the Advancement of Deaf Persons in Israel]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

* [[Irit Meir|Meir, Irit]] & [[Wendy Sandler|Sandler, Wendy]]. (2007) A Language in Space: The Story of Israel Sign Language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

==External links==

{{Languages of Israel}}

{{sign language navigation}}

[[Category:Languages of Israel]]

[[Category:German Sign Language family]]