If most Jews did not speak Hebrew how did the Israelis manage to make Hebrew their official language?

Short answer: By vote. Actually, Hebrew has been the Jewish language for centuries and is the language they pray in. When Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue, he had a Hebrew-speaking Jewish descendant of convert to Christianity on board so he could speak with the natives of whatever (Far Eastern, as far as Columbus knew) people they met along the way.

Actually, many arrived in Israel completely fluent in Hebrew. But there's a man who created Modern Hebrew, using ancient Hebrew, and making words to fit modern conveniences, like watches, refrigerators, and cars. People arrived, they became fluent. Many spoke and still speak Yiddish, not Hebrew, for most everyday conversation.

If a Jew makes aliyah to Israel, there is a program called "Ulpan" which is a system of learning centers, teaching the newbies Hebrew. Israel takes good care of its people. For more information, take a look at this website: http://www.gov.il/FirstGov/TopNavEng/EngSituations/ESNewImmigrantsGuide/ESNILearningHebrew/

Most Jews DID speak Hebrew. It was used for religious study & prayers from all along. Yiddish & Ladino (the Mediteranean Jewish-Spanish mix) both use a lot of Hebrew. Yiddish is written in Hebrew letters. (Don't know about Ladino.) It's that it wasn't spoken as a primary language or for everyday chattering. Those linguistics were developed by Ben Yehudi in 1900s. So when Hebrew was chosen as 1 of the 2 official Israeli languages (Arabic is the other offical language)... everything was formally done in Hebrew. Ulpans were used (teaching classes) to assimilate newcomers. To this day, if you immigrate to Israel, you are given free Ulpan classes from many months.

it has always been the language of israel and there have always been jews in israel. but if you want to know how in modern times they have learned the language i can tell you as i went there from australia as an immigrant. my family and i lived in an immigrant hostel for the first 6 months. during that time my mother, brother and i ( my father was israeli so he already spoke hebrew), went to hebrew classes in what is called an ulpan every day for about a year, which is what most immigrants do.

My friend is from Israel, he can speak perfect English but most of the stuff that he puts on Facebook is in Hebrew... I guess they just learn it over time or heard their parents/grandparents speak it when they were little and gotten used to how to speak certain things n all.

They had to learn Hebrew... In Israel's early days, non-Hebrew languages spoken by diaspora Jews were "suppressed" and discouraged from being spoken, e.g. Yiddish, Arabic, English, German, Russian, etc.

When they were building the temple of Babylon, they didn't want Yahweh's( who you refer to as god) help... This angered him. He made it so they couldn't understand eachother with diff. languages. Since they couldn't understand eachother, they went their separate ways... But yes... Hebrew is the official language of the Jews