 By the time Israel gained independence in 1948, 80.9% of Jews who had been born in Palestine spoke Hebrew as their only language in daily life, and another 14.2% of Palestine-born Jews used it as a first among two or more languages.The small minority of Jews who had been born in Palestine but did not use Hebrew as their first language had mainly grown up before the development of the Hebrew school system.Following Israeli independence, large waves of Jewish refugees came from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world.