Members of the community are being urged to take exams in Hebrew to save GCSEs and A-levels in the language from being scrapped.

The appeal, from the Board of Deputies, comes after the OCR and AQA exam boards, which offer biblical Hebrew and modern Hebrew respectively, announced that both subjects face being axed in 2017 alongside other "non-traditional" languages.

The exam boards said the move was the result of low and declining entry figures, and a shortage of experienced examiners.

A spokesperson said: "As a not-for-profit organisation, OCR has to make difficult decisions based on managing our commitments to reach as many teachers and learners as possible."

Sara Perlmutter, education policy manager at the Board, said she had held talks with both OCR and AQA to reach a solution.

In a letter to the Board, AQA's head of languages Judith Rowland-Jones had stressed her "firm commitment to offering GCSE Modern Hebrew in the future".

Ms Perlmutter said: "For a subject to be viable, they are looking for between 1,000-2,000 applicants. At the moment, we have about 500 studying each language at GCSE, and about 120 at A-level.

"They've told us that if they see a growing trend, they will be more likely to keep the exams. So we are working with the Israeli embassy to encourage more people to study Hebrew.

"We're also working with PaJeS [the umbrella body for Jewish schools], which has just introduced a new Ivrit programme, and the London School of Jewish Studies. Everyone must work in tandem."

Ms Perlmutter, encouraged adults, including recent school leavers, university students and Israelis living in London, to consider sitting the exams to increase the numbers.

An alternative, she said, would be to combine both modern and biblical Hebrew under one examining body - something AQA and OCR have agreed to consider.

"After Pesach, we're going to pool all the Jewish schools together and find out what they want us to do before we start a campaign," she said.

"We are getting somewhere, but we have to work carefully and slowly."

Senior vice-president of the Board Laura Marks appealed for more examiners to come forward.

She said: "If there are people who have qualifications in either modern or biblical Hebrew who would like the opportunity to become examiners we would love to hear from them."

Tristram Hunt, Labour's shadow education secretary, urged the government to take urgent action to save the exams.

He told MPs before the dissolution of Parliament: "It is not good enough for the Education Secretary [Nicky Morgan] to wash her hands of the problem, to disappear off on the election campaign.

"She must do the right thing and clear up the mess that her government has created."

The Department for Education has said it has no influence over the exam boards' choices of GCSE and A-level subjects.