He is a famous Jewish writer from a long time ago (waaay before we were born) who wrote these books called, in English, "Commentary on the Mishnah", "Sefer ha-Mitzvot", "Guide to the Perplexed" etc (they are quite famous) in Arabic. Not to mention the Geonim like Saadia Gaon, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Bahya ibn Pakuda, Judah Halevi, and so on, who wrote exclusively in Arabic only much, much later to be translated into Hebrew for European Jewry. And, oh my. Look at this - there is even its own Wikipedia entry on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Arabic Sorry for venturing outside of your narrow realm of expertise. I'll try to keep my comments limited to more recent pop culture in the future, if that helps.

We do know about Maimonides - but what the fuck does that have to do with a logo for an Israeli city? We no longer use Arabic - haven't for many years now - but I guess your expertise doesn't seem to cover the last 1,000 years. Morons like you are not welcome here.

Think hard, Tiki. I live and work in Wales, where all signs, including in public buildings, hospitals etc. are bilingual (in Welsh and English). Britanny has bilingual street signs in both French and Breton. The same in the Basque area (Spanish and Basque) and other autonomous communities in Spain. In Canada there are bilingual signs, Alsace, China, Korea etc. etc. Bilingual signs are found anywhere and increasingly so to express respect for cultural and lingual minorities. At least twenty percent of the population of Israel is of Palestinian Arab descent. Tel Aviv is built on the ruins of a Palestinian Arab village. If Israelis show respect for the Arab heritage in their country you may get respect in turn from Palestinain Arabs for the Hebrew cultural heritage.

"...much later to be translated into Hebrew for European Jewry. " You admit that in order for these texts written in Arabic by Maimonides, to be adopted and understood by Jewry as a whole...THEY HAD TO BE TRANSLATED INTO HEBREW. Jews spoke and wrote in many languages (including now in English, as I am doing this very minute), but unless the language is an accepted Lingua Franca by Jewry as a whole, it has no place as a national language of the Jewish State. Arabic has already been accorded official status in Israel, for use by the Arab minority, but it is not the national language, full stop.

As a Jew of Sephardic ancestors, I'm appalled by the impressive percentage of posters here that are really BIG BIGOTS -Why are they denying the fact that there are more than 20 % of the Israelí Citizens that are Non-Jewish and speak both Hebrew and Arabic? Moreover, there are a lot of Jewish Citizens that speak Hebrew and Arabic too. I myself have several relatives living in Israel that speak correctly Arabic and Hebrew. As a matter of fact, Sephardic Jewish Authors, as Maimonides, Ibn Gabirol, Yehudah Halevy. etc etc. HAVE WRITTEN their Books,Treatises, Papers, etc. FIRST in Arabic, and after several years they were traslated to the Hebrew, and sometimes to the Spanish, French, Italian and German. And, indeed, the first documents of the newborn State of Israel, dating from 1948 / 1949 have been written in HEBREW; ARABIC and ENGLISH. If the State of Israel wishes to be Jewish AND Democratic, it must strictly respect their minorities .... Remember that the real DEMOCRACY is where the MAJORITY governs, but respecting and protecting the MINORITIES. It's the first time that I'm ashamed of the posts written here in Ynet, by my Jewish Brothers. PS. To all the MORONS here that have written that in the USA there are NOT bilingual signs, I can tell you that, in my frequent trips to the States, I have seen in a lot of places, signs written BOTH in English and Spanish.

tel aviv was NEVER BUILT ON ANY VILLAGE, ARAB OR OTHERWISE. tel aviv was built on THE BEACH! there were no arab villages on the beach at that time at all. please read history and look at pictures of the building of tel aviv. all that was there was wide, very wide, sand dunes. hameed aboughaze, iranian

Nope, you are wrong & you know it. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Sarah B you must have never been to LA, at least not lately. Drive down Ventura Blvd., half of the signs are either Hebrew or Farsi, the other half English or Mexican (no not Spanish, there is a local difference). The Jewish Farsi looks to me just like the Arabic. Thesae Jews speak and do business in Farsi. Wait until these Jews come to Israel, you will have plenty of Arabic looking signs.