Total revival of a dead language (in the sense of having no native speakers) into a self-sustaining community of several million first language speakers has happened only once, in the case of Hebrew, now the national language of Israel. In this case, there was a unique set of historical and cultural characteristics that facilitated the revival. (See: Hebrew revitalization.) Hebrew, once largely a liturgical language, was reestablished as a means of everyday communication by Jews migrating to what is now the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories, starting in the nineteenth century. It is the world's most famous and successful example of language revitalization. However, the Zionist encouragement of Hebrew has contributed to endanger the future of Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish.