Israeli Sign Language

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Israeli Sign Language, ISL שפת הסימנים הישראלית śfàt ha-simaním ha-iśraelít שס"י shássi [abbr.]
Signed in:	Israel
Total signers:	10,000 (approximately)
Language family:	descendant of German Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`sgn`
ISO 639-3:	`isr`
sign language — list of sign languages — legal recognition

Israeli Sign Language or ISL (local name: śfàt ha-simaním ha-iśraelít; abbreviation is vocalized as shássi) is the most commonly 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 goes back to 1873 in Germany, where Marcus Reich, a 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 a lodestone to 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, but a local dialect gradually emerged, a dialect which eventually became ISL. ISL still shares many features and vocabulary items with the German sign language, although it is too far apart today to be considered a dialect of the latter. During the 1940s 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.