Geography of Spoken Hebrew
Hebrew is spoken primarily in Israel by its close to six million Jews as well as by the two million Arabs who live there.
Usually, most Ashkenazi Jews not born in Israel, (about eight million people), find it difficult to learn and use Hebrew as a colloquial spoken language. The minority (perhaps 20% at most) who attended Jewish schools or yeshivas usually have a greater familiarity with it and can read and even write Hebrew, but speaking it only seems to really take root and flourish when enough time is spent in Israel itself talking with native Hebrew speakers.
Most American and European Jews have not visited Israel and cannot say much in Hebrew. Hebrew is therefore not spoken by them nor is it understood much by the vast majority of Jews in many areas outside of Israel where there are large Jewish populations, especially in countries such as Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
But as part of Judaism, Hebrew is used in varying degrees for religious study and prayers more frequently. Usually, the more Orthodox Jews attend all-Jewish Hebrew and religious schools whereas the majority of Jews tend to be highly proficient in the language of their countries of residence and less interested in learning Hebrew.
Nevertheless, in North America, efforts such as the National Jewish Outreach Program and synagogues offer free "crash courses" in Hebrew reading to tens of thousands of Jews each year in order to introduce Jewish adults to Hebrew reading for the first time.
Nearly every immigrant to Israel is encouraged to adopt Standard Hebrew and its nuances as their daily language. As a dialect, Standard Hebrew was originally based on Sephardi Hebrew, but has been further constrained to Ashkenazi phonology to form a unique modern dialect.
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