Hatikva - The Israeli National Anthem

The first verse and the chorus of the song "Hatikva"
handwritten and signed by Naphtali Herz Imber -1908

"Tikvatenu" (Our Hope) is a patriotic song authored by Naftali Herz Imber in 1878.
Naftali was born in 1856 in the city of Zlotschov Galicia. He wrote the poem while staying with a local Jewish scholar in the city of Iasi, Romania.

The first version of the song consisted of nine verses and a chorus. It was accepted as a national anthem among the Hebrew residents (Ha'Yeshuv) in the Holy Land and among the Zionist movement in the late 19th century.

With the establishment of the State of Israel a shorter version with its name revised to "Hatikva" (The Hope) was considered as the young state's national anthem, but it wasn't until 2004 that it became formally recognized by law as the national anthem of the Jewish state. The Israeli anthem includes the first two verses of the original poem with a slight change in the lyrics.
The source of poem's melody is uncertain and there were many hypotheses' over the years, as to where it originated from. It appears however, that Samuel Cohen, a Jewish pioneer and composer who immigrated to the Holy Land in 1888, adapted a Romanian folk melody for the lyrics.

English translation of the Israeli Anthem:

 

As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east,
An eye still gazes toward Zion;

Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

 

 

 

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