Hatikvah

{{Listen

| type = music

| filename = Hatikvah (first recording).ogg

| title = 1920 band and female vocal recording (two verses)

| description = The first recording of "Hatikvah" ({{Langx|he|«הַתִּקְוָה»}}), performed by Hulda Lashanska

}}

The text of Hatikvah was written in 1878 by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Zolochiv ({{langx|pl|Złoczów|link=no|italic=no}}), a city nicknamed "The City of Poets",{{citation |first=Jakob |last=Weiss |title=The Lemberg Mosaic |place=New York |publisher=Alderbrook |year=2011 |page=59}}. then in Austrian Poland, today in Ukraine. His words "Lashuv le'eretz avotenu" (to return to the land of our forefathers) expressed its aspiration.

In 1882, Imber emigrated to Ottoman-ruled Palestine and read his poem to the pioneers of the early Jewish villages—Rishon LeZion, Rehovot, Gedera, and Yesud Hama'ala.{{cite web |last=Tobianah |first=Vicky |title=Pianist explores Hatikva's origins |url=http://www.cjnews.com/culture/arts/pianist-explores-hatikvahs-origins |website=Canadian Jewish News |date=12 May 2012 |access-date=16 May 2017}} In 1887, Shmuel Cohen, a very young (17 or 18 years old) resident of Rishon LeZion with a musical background, sang the poem by using a melody he knew from Romania and making it into a song, after witnessing the emotional responses of the Jewish farmers who had heard the poem.{{cite journal |last= Seroussi |first= Edwin |author-link= Edwin Seroussi |title= Hatikvah: Conceptions, Receptions and Reflections |journal= Yuval – Studies of the Jewish Music Research Centre |publisher= Jewish Music Research Centre (JMRC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |volume= IX |year= 2015 |via= JMRC website |url= https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/yuval/22482 |access-date=6 January 2021}} Cohen's musical adaptation served as a catalyst and facilitated the poem's rapid spread throughout the Zionist communities of Palestine.

Imber's nine-stanza poem, {{Interlanguage link|Tikvatenu|he|תקוותנו|quote=yes}} ({{Lang|he|תִּקְוָתֵנוּ}}, "Our Hope"), put into words his thoughts and feelings following the establishment of Petah Tikva (literally "Opening of Hope"). Published in Imber's first book {{Citation |place=Jerusalem |year=1886 |title=Barkai |trans-title=The Shining Morning Star}},Naphtali Herz Imber (1904) [https://books.google.com/books?id=4Xs_AAAAYAAJ Barkoi or The Blood Avenger], A. H. Rosenberg, New York (Hebrew and English) was subsequently adopted as an anthem by the Hovevei Zion and later by the Zionist Movement.

The Zionist Organization conducted two competitions for an anthem, the first in 1898 and the second, at the Fourth Zionist Congress, in 1900. The quality of the entries were all judged unsatisfactory and none was selected. Imber's "Tikvatenu", however, was popular, and a sessions at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel in 1901 concluded with the singing of the poem. During the Sixth Zionist Congress at Basel in 1903, the poem was sung by those opposed to accepting the proposal for a Jewish state in Uganda, their position in favor of the Jewish homeland in Palestine expressed in the line "An eye still gazes toward Zion".{{cite web | title=Hatikvah: Conceptions, Receptions and Reflections | website=Jewish Music Research Centre | publisher=Hebrew University of Jerusalem|date=1 Dec 2009 | url=https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/he/node/22482#1 | access-date=20 Dec 2020}}

Although the poem was sung at subsequent congresses, it was only at the Eighteenth Zionist Congress in Prague in 1933 that a motion passed formally adopting "Hatikvah" as the anthem of the Zionist movement.

The British Mandate government briefly banned its public performance and broadcast from 1919, in response to an increase in Arab anti-Zionist political activity.{{Citation |last=Morris |first=B |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGtVsBne7PgC&q=anthem&pg=PA90 |title=Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist–Arab Conflict, 1881–1999 |publisher=Knopf|isbn=9780307788054 }}. {{page needed|date=January 2022}}

A former member of the Sonderkommando reported that the song was spontaneously sung by Czech Jews at the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chamber in 1944. While singing they were beaten by Waffen-SS guards.{{Citation |first=Shirli |last=Gilbert |title=Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps |page=154}}.

{{JewishMusic}}

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, "Hatikvah" was unofficially proclaimed the national anthem. It did not officially become the national anthem until November 2004, when an abbreviated and edited version was sanctioned by the Knesset in an amendment to the Flag and Coat-of-Arms Law (now renamed the Flag, Coat-of-Arms, and National Anthem Law).{{cite web | last=Ben Zion | first=Ilan | title=How an unwieldy romantic poem and a Romanian folk song combined to produce 'Hatikva'| website=The Times of Israel | date=16 Apr 2013 | url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-an-unwieldy-romantic-poem-and-a-romanian-folk-song-combined-to-produce-hatikva/ | access-date=20 Dec 2020}}

In its modern rendering, the official text of the anthem incorporates only the first stanza and refrain of the original poem. The predominant theme in the remaining stanzas is the establishment of a sovereign and free nation in the Land of Israel, a hope largely seen as fulfilled with the founding of the State of Israel.

The melody for "Hatikvah" is based from "La Mantovana", a 16th-century Italian song, composed by Giuseppe Cenci (Giuseppino del Biado) ca. 1600 with the text "Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi da questo cielo". Its earliest known appearance in print was in the del Biado's collection of madrigals. It was later known in early 17th-century Italy as {{Citation |title=Ballo di Mantova}}. This melody gained wide currency in Renaissance Europe, under various titles, such as the {{Citation |language=pl |title=Pod Krakowem}}, {{Citation |language=ro |title=Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus |trans-title=Maize with up-standing leaves}}Lyrics: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/cucuruz-cu-frunza-n-sus-traditional-version-no-2-maize-raised-leaf-traditional-version.html and the {{Citation |language=uk |title=Kateryna Kucheryava}}.{{Citation |url=http://torban.org/torban4b.html |title=IV. Musical examples: Baroque and classic eras; Torban Tuning and repertoire |publisher=Torban}}. It also served as a basis for a number of folk songs throughout Central Europe, for example the popular Slovenian children song {{Citation |language=sl |title=Čuk se je oženil|trans-title=The little owl got married}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.delo.si/kultura/glasba/mesanje-glasbenih-zvrsti.html|title=Il Divo – poperetni fenomen|first=Zdenko Matoz|last=kultura|date=26 September 2014|website=delo.si}} The best-known use of the melody prior to it becoming the Zionist anthem was by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana in his set of six symphonic poems celebrating Bohemia, Má vlast (My Homeland), namely in the second poem named after the river which flows through Prague, Vltava (also known as "The Moldau"). The melody was also used by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in Rhapsodie bretonne.[https://www.francemusique.fr/emissions/maxxi-classique/la-mantovana-un-air-classique-populaire-et-politique "La Mantovana : un air classique, populaire et politique"], francemusique.fr, 17 February 2021 (in French)

\relative d' {\key d \minor \autoBeamOff

d8[ e] f g a4 a | bes8[ a] bes[ d] a2 | g4 g8 g f4 f | e8[ d] e[ f] d4. a8 |

d8 e f[ g] a4 a | bes8[ a] bes[ d] a2 | g4 g8 g f4 f | e8[ d] e[ f] d2 |

d4 d' d d | c8 d c[ bes] a2 | d,4 d' d d | c8 d c[ bes] a2 |

c4 c8 c f,4 f | g8[ a] bes[ c] a4( g8) f | g4 g f f8 f | e d e[ f] d2 |

g4 g8 g f4 f | g8[ a] bes[ c] a4( g8) f | g4 g f f8 f | e d e[ f] d2 \bar "|."}

\addlyrics {

Kol 'od ba -- le -- vav pe -- ni -- mah

Ne -- fesh Ye -- hu -- di ho -- mi -- yah,

U -- l'fa -- a -- te miz -- rach ka -- di -- mah,

'A -- yin le -- Tzi -- yon tzo -- fi -- yah;

Od lo av -- dah ti -- kva -- te -- nu,

Ha -- tik -- vah bat shnot 'al -- pa -- yim,

Lih -- yot 'am chof -- shi be -- 'ar -- tze -- nu,

'E -- retz -- Tzi -- yon vi -- ru -- sha -- la -- yim.

Lih -- yot 'am chof -- shi be -- 'ar -- tze -- nu,

'E -- retz -- Tzi -- yon vi -- ru -- sha -- la -- yim.

}

The adaptation of the music for "Hatikvah" was set by Samuel Cohen in 1888. Cohen himself recalled many years later that he had hummed "Hatikvah" based on the melody from the song he had heard in Romania, "Carul cu boi" (the ox-driven cart).Lyrics: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/carul-cu-boi-ox-driven-cart.html

The melody of "Hatikvah" follows a minor scale, which is often perceived as mournful in tone and is uncommon in national anthems. As the title "The Hope" and the words suggest, the import of the song is optimistic and the overall spirit uplifting.

In October 2017, after Israeli judoka Tal Flicker won gold in the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in the United Arab Emirates, officials played the International Judo Federation (IJF) anthem, instead of "Hatikvah", which Flicker sang privately.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-wins-gold-at-abu-dhabi-judo-tourney-which-refuses-to-play-the-anthem/|title=Israeli wins judo gold in UAE, which refuses to play anthem, raise flag|website=www.timesofisrael.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ijf.org/competition/1468/results|title=Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2017 / IJF.org|website=ijf.org}}

American composer John Williams adapted "Hatikvah" in the 2005 historical drama film Munich.{{Cite web|url=https://www.halleonard.com/product/8725088/hatikva-the-hope-from-imunichi|title=Hatikva (The Hope) (from Munich)|via=halleonard.com/}}

"Hatikvah" is also used both in the adaptation of Leon Uris's novel, Exodus, and in the 1993 film Schindler's List.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

In 2022 Roman Shumunov filmed a TV series titled {{ill|As Long as in the Heart|he|כל עוד בלבב (סדרת טלוויזיה)}} about the Israeli youth encounter with The Holocaust.

Barbra Streisand performed "Hatikvah" in 1978 at a televised music special called The Stars Salute Israel at 30, a performance which included a conversation by telephone and video link with former Prime Minister Golda Meir.{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OHVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA420 |title=Streisand: A Biography |date=2016-02-15 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-63076-129-5 |language=en}}

American musician Anderson .Paak's 2016 release "Come Down" contains a sample of "Hatikvah" in English translation, attributed to producer Hi-Tek.{{cite web |last1=Balfour |first1=Jay |title=Best new track: Anderson .Paak, "Come Down" |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17909-andersonpaak-come-down/ |website=Pitchfork |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=17 January 2022}}

A 2018 rendition of the anthem by Israeli Jewish singer Daniel Sa'adon that took inspiration from the Levantine music and dance style dabke caused controversy and accusations of appropriation of Palestinian culture, as well as consternation from some Israelis due to the tune's popularity with Hamas.{{cite web |last1=Mashali |first1=Linoy |title=The religious singer who turned the anthem "Hatikva" into an Arab hit |date=25 April 2018 |url=https://www.srugim.co.il/251179-%D7%94%D7%96%D7%9E%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%93%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%A9%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%9A-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%95%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%99%D7%98 |website=Srugim |access-date=17 January 2022}} Sa'adon, however, said that his desire was to "show that the unity of cultures is possible through music",{{cite news |last1=Campos |first1=Daniel |title=The Fuss About a Dabke Israeli Anthem |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtMhYQoEgCs |access-date=17 January 2022 |agency=i24NEWS English}} and that he has a longtime appreciation for Southwest Asian and North African musical styles, having grown up with Tunisian music in the home.{{cite web |last1=Maksimov |first1=Ehud |title="ולפאתי מזרח: הישראלי שגורם לערבים לשיר את "התקווה |url=https://www.makorrishon.co.il/culture/motsash/46419/ |website=Makor Rishon |publisher=מקור ראשון |access-date=17 January 2022}} Sa'adon said that despite receiving "abusive comments" from both the right and the left of the political spectrum, he also received praise from friends and colleagues in the music world, including Arab citizens of Israel.{{cite news |last1=רוזנבלט |first1=אלה |title=מוזיקאי דתי ובוגר ישיבת מרכז הרב הפך את המנון התקווה ללהיט ערבי (וידאו) |url=https://ashdodnet.com/%d7%99%d7%94%d7%93%d7%95%d7%aa/314495 |access-date=17 January 2022 |agency=AshdodNet |publisher=isNet |date=May 4, 2018}}

On 25 May 2021, four days after the ceasefire that ended the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Israeli singers Omer Adam and Noa Kirel released a pop remix of "Hatikvah" under the title "Hope". Produced by Scott Storch, it contains additional lyrics in English. It received mixed reviews, with some Israelis deeming it direspectful. Adam and Kirel donated their proceeds from the song to YAHAD United for Israel's Soldiers.{{Cite web|last=Brown|first=Hannah|date=27 May 2021|title=Omer Adam, Noa Kirel's 'Hatikvah' remix sparks social media snark storm|url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/omer-adam-noa-kirels-hatikvah-remix-sparks-social-media-snark-storm-669430|website=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=22 June 2024}}

File:Hatikvah.jpg

The official text of the Israeli national anthem corresponds to the first stanza and amended refrain of the original nine-stanza poem by Naftali Herz Imber. Along with the original Hebrew, the corresponding transliterationIn the transliterations that appear on this page, a right quote (’) is used to represent the Hebrew letter aleph ({{Script/Hebrew|א}}) when used as a consonant, while a left quote (‘) is used to represent the Hebrew letter ‘ayin ({{Script/Hebrew|ע}}). The letter e in parentheses, (e), indicates a schwa that should theoretically be voiceless, but is usually pronounced as a very short e in modern Israeli Hebrew. In contrast, the letter a in parentheses, (a), indicates a very short a that should theoretically be pronounced, but is usually not voiced in modern Israeli Hebrew. and English translation are listed below.

{{listen

| type = music

| filename = BergenBelsenHatikva.ogg

| title = 1945 a cappella vocal recording

| description = BBC recording from 20 April 1945 of Jewish survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp singing "Hatikvah", only five days after their liberation by Allied forces. The words sung are from the original poem by Imber.

}}

Some people compare the first line of the refrain, "Our hope is not yet lost" ("{{Script/Hebrew|עוד לא אבדה תקותנו}}"), to the opening of the Polish national anthem, "Poland Is Not Yet Lost" ("{{lang|pl|Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła|italic=no}}") or the Ukrainian national anthem, "Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished" ("{{lang|uk|Ще не вмерла Україна; Šče ne vmerla Ukrajina|italic=no}}"). This line may also be a Biblical allusion to Ezekiel's "Vision of the Dried Bones" (Ezekiel 37: "…Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost (Hebrew:אבדה תקותנו)"), describing the despair of the Jewish people in exile, and God's promise to redeem them and lead them back to the Land of Israel.

The official text of "Hatikvah" is relatively short; indeed it is a single complex sentence, consisting of two clauses: the subordinate clause posits the condition ("As long as… A soul still yearns… And… An eye still watches…"), while the independent clause specifies the outcome ("Our hope is not yet lost… To be a free nation in our land").

Some religious Jews have criticised "Hatikvah" for the song's lack of religious emphasis: there is no mention of God or the Torah in its lyrics.Yosef Y. Jacobson, [https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/3010604/jewish/Bentching-vs-Hatikva-Torah-vs-the-UN.htm Bentching vs. Hatikva; Torah vs. the UN], Chabad.org, originally published in summer 2013, accessed 30 January 2019{{better source needed|date=April 2022}}

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook wrote an alternative anthem titled "HaEmunah" ("The Faith") which he proposed as a replacement for "Hatikvah", while still endorsing the original anthem.{{Citation | url = http://www.lookstein.org/resources/hatikvah1.htm | first = Rav | last = Kook | title = Response to Hatikvah | quote = In more recent years, some Israeli Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews have criticised the song's western perspective. For Iraqi and Persian Jews, for example, the Land of Israel was in the west, and it was to this direction that they focused their prayers.}}

J. Simcha Cohen wrote{{cite news |newspaper=The Jewish Press|title=The Hatikva Text |date=May 1, 1998 |page=17}} that Dovid Lifshitz used "Lihyot am dati": "to be a religious nation [in our land]."

Liberalism and the Right to Culture, written by Avishai Margalit and Moshe Halbertal, provides a social scientific perspective on the cultural dynamics in Israel, a country that is a vital home to many diverse religious groups. More specifically, Margalit and Halbertal cover the various responses towards "Hatikvah", which they establish as the original anthem of a Zionist movement, one that holds a 2,000-year-long hope of returning to the homeland ("Zion and Jerusalem") after a long period of exile.

To introduce the controversy of Israel's national anthem, the authors provide two instances where "Hatikvah" is rejected for the estrangement that it creates between the minority cultural groups of Israel and its national Jewish politics. Those that object find trouble in the mere fact that the national anthem is exclusively Jewish while a significant proportion of the state's citizenry is not Jewish and lacks any connection to the anthem's content and implications, despite the fact that many other religious countries also have anthems emphasising their religion.

As Margalit and Halbertal continue to discuss, "Hatikvah" symbolises for many Arab-Israelis the struggle of loyalty that comes with having to dedicate oneself to either their historical or religious identity.{{Cite journal|last1=Margalit|first1=Avishai|last2=Halbertal|first2=Moshe|year=2004|title=Liberalism and the Right to Culture|journal=Social Research: An International Quarterly|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=71|issue=3 |pages=494–497|doi=10.1353/sor.2004.0025 |s2cid=141158881 }}

Specifically, Israeli-Arabs object to "Hatikvah" due to its explicit allusions to Jewishness. In particular, the text's reference to the yearnings of "a Jewish soul" is often cited as preventing non-Jews from personally identifying with the anthem. Notable persons whose refusal to sing Hatikvah was brought to public attention include Druze politician Saleh Tarif, the first non-Jew appointed to the Israeli cabinet between 2001 and 2022,{{cite web|title=Not All Israeli Arabs Cheer Appointment of Druse Minister|url=http://archive.jta.org/article/2001/03/06/2902077/behind-the-headlines-not-all-israeli-arabs-cheer-appointment-of-druse-minister|publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|date=2001-03-06|access-date=2012-04-26|quote=It is the Jewish anthem, it is not the anthem of the non-Jewish citizens of Israel.|archive-date=18 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318165528/http://www.jta.org/2001/03/06/archive/behind-the-headlines-not-all-israeli-arabs-cheer-appointment-of-druse-minister|url-status=dead}} Raleb Majadale, the first Muslim to be appointed as a minister in the Israeli cabinet between 2007 and 2009,{{cite news|title=Majadele refuses to sing national anthem|newspaper= Ynetnews |url= http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3377681,00.html |publisher=Ynet News|date=2007-03-17|access-date=2007-05-09|quote=I fail to understand how an enlightened, sane Jew allows himself to ask a Muslim person with a different language and culture, to sing an anthem that was written for Jews only.|last1= Meranda |first1= Amnon }} and Salim Joubran, an Israeli Arab who served as a Supreme Court justice between 2003 and 2017.{{cite news|last=Bronner|first=Ethan|author-link=Ethan Bronner|title=Anger and Compassion for Arab Justice Who Stays Silent During Zionist Hymn|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/world/middleeast/anger-and-compassion-for-justice-who-stays-silent-during-zionist-hymn.html|access-date=29 April 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=3 March 2012}} For this reason from time to time proposals have been made to change the national anthem or to modify the text to make it inclusive of non-Jewish Israelis.{{cite web| last= Philologos|title= Rewriting 'Hatikvah' as Anthem for All|url=http://forward.com/articles/153452/rewriting-hatikvah-as-anthem-for-all/|work=The Jewish Daily Forward|date= 27 March 2012|access-date=29 April 2012}}

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