 Itamar Ben-Avi was born as Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda () in Jerusalem on July 31, 1882, the son of Deborah and Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.Eliezer is credited with reviving the Hebrew language; Itamar was brought up to be the first native speaker of Hebrew in the modern era.At his father's insistence, Itamar was not permitted to hear any language other than Hebrew at home.