[jjotto]

I am not Jewish, but have close ties to a number of Jewish scholars, and I can mostly thank Dr. Jonathon Paradise, from whom I learned Hebrew.

[Pharmboy]

Interesting...I was educated in a Hebrew school and never had heard this. My Israeli friend attests to the fact that most Israeli Jews do not know this.

I believe that the rabbis do not disseminate this fact for a number of reasons (perhaps not wanting to admit that the alphabet they are using now was of non-Jewish origins being the main one), but language scholars (whether Jewish, Christian or Buddhist, without religious agendas) would have no reason not to speak of this fact.