From Eric Kvaalen
Anton Fjortoft wrote that the modern Hebrew alphabet was virtually invented by a Jewish professor around 1948 (26 July, p 25). I don’t know which professor he is referring to, but the Hebrew alphabet used today is the same as that used for thousands of years. Styles have changed a bit, but the main difference between the modern alphabet and the old Hebrew alphabet dates from the Babylonian captivity (several centuries before Christ), when the Jews adopted the Babylonian Aramaic script. The newer alphabet has several letters that resemble each other and have therefore led to copying mistakes in the Bible. In the old alphabet, all the letters were quite distinct.
Paris, France
