I know that English is not an official language in Israel. But I’ve also heard it’s a widely spoken unofficial language.
How common is English usage in Israel? Would a monolingual English speaker be able to function in society? Do you find English magazines and books in Israeli stores? Are there English television broadcasts and movies? Do you hear English being spoken in the streets?
There is English everywhere.
Yes , an English-speaker can function in society,with very few problems.
English is a required subject in middle school and high school. All university graduates know English at least well enough to converse casually, and often are close to fluent…Anybody who works in the the tourist industry knows English very well-- although the lowest staff, such as the hotel chambermaids, may be a little difficult to understand…
The English language newspapers are not usually for sale at the sidewalk kiosks …you may have to go to a bookstore to buy one off the magazine shelf, where half the periodicals for sale are also in English, as are about 10-20% of the books… Except at the large hotels, where all the newpapers and books are in in English. Cable TV includes BBC, MSNBC and Fox News, as well as the History Channel, National Geographic, ESPN, and a lot of others. Movies are shown straight from Hollywood, in the original English, with Hebrew subtitles.
If you’re going to Israel as an English speaking tourist, language is a total non-issue.
(missed the edit window*)
one more thing: all street signs are in English and Hebrew. The GPS in rental cars speaks English. And in general, There is English on any important signs with instructions (“Do not feed the lions”, “when getting on the ski lift, disconnect the boot strap on your snowboard”) .
(note to mods: dagnabbit, why the 5 minute limit?. Why not limit by the number of posts following your own…i.e. If there are, say , no more than one or two additional posts in the thread, you can go back and edit your original post, even if it’s been -gasp! --10 whole minutes.)
People that live in Israel can oftentimes speak Hebrew, English, and Arabic. I was there for six weeks and had absolutely no problem communicating with just about everyone. This was Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv, nomads in the middle of the desert. Everywhere. Heck, I remember one time when I went up to a vendor and merely uttered the word “Shtyim” (two), when the vendor shot back “you can speak English here.”
I was in Israel (Haifa and Tel Aviv) in 1982. Everyone spoke American English and was well versed in American TV. I was also approached to sell a Nikon FM camera body w/o lens. I did AFTER we went to a bank to confirm the brand new 3 100$ bills were legit, they were.
If I didn’t know better I would have sworn this was our 51st state.
Brookline, MA is a territory of Israel.
All the Hebrew you need to know.
לך תזדיין
If you can read the post you won’t need to know it from Senegoid (“fuck off”). Indeed, given the responses so far, you don’t need to know it.
An English monolingual (if that works as noun) would not be able to function in Israel if he were a resident. He would not be able to deal with most low-level (and high-level) government, utility, tax, etc. etc.–ie, what come with living in a country–without translation, and even then he be at the end of the line. And get left out of the life of the country. You could always point when shopping, I guess. They speak Hebrew in Israel.
Of course, there are cases here in America which might be analogous. Come to NYC Chinatown, where thousands/generations of residents who can only nod and smile in the language of their country.
I’ll bring my Rabbi. 
Is Yiddish spoken?
I spent 3 months there last year and had no problem only knowing English.
Now Chile, that unfortunately is another story!