Hatikvah, which translates to “the hope” is the national anthem of the state of Israel. Officially adopted as the national anthem in 2004, Hatikvah was created over a century prior to its installation. It has been said that “few words are as well-known to Jews around the world as the lyrics of Hatikvah.”
History
Hatikvah was first written as a nine-stanza poem by Naphtali Herz Imber. Imber was born in 1856 in the town of Zloczow (then in the Galician region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of Ukraine). In 1882, Imber came to Ottoman-ruled Palestine as part of the First Aliyah. The First Aliyah occurred after pogroms ravaged Jewish shtetls, when Jews fleeing Eastern Europe, as well as Yemen, returned for the first time in hundreds of years to their homeland. When they arrived they set up agricultural villages, the very first kibbutzim. It was seeing the beginning of these settlements that inspired Imber to write his poem, originally titled “Tikvateinu,” meaning “our hope.”
Over time, the lengthy original poem was shortened to include only the first two stanzas, and a melody was added by Samuel Cohen, a composer from Romania who also arrived in Palestine during the First Aliyah. His beautiful and simultaneously mournful tune was inspired by a common pattern which had circulated Europe for centuries. The melody has roots with Sephardic Jews who brought the tune to 16th century Italy, a Flemish song “Ik zag Cecilia Komen,” as well as the Ukrainian “Kateryna Kucheryava,” Czech “Die Moldau,” and Romanian “Carul cu boi.” This final version of Imber’s poem with Cohen’s melody became the unofficial anthem of the grassroots Zionist movement in the late 1800s. Since then, Hatikvah has spread across the globe, becoming the beloved anthem it is today. The lyrics of Hatikvah are as follows:
“Kol od baleivav penimah – As long as Jewish spirit
Nefesh yehudi homiyah – Yearns deep in the heart
Ulfa’atey mizrah kadimah – With eyes turned East
Ayin letsiyon tsofiyah – Looking towards Zion
Od lo avdah tikvateinu – Our hope is not yet lost
Hatikvah bat shenot al payim – The hope of two millennia
Lihyot am hofshi be’artzeinu – To be a free people in our land
Eretz tziyon veyerushalayim – The land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
The original last three lines of the poem read, “the ancient hope to return to the land of our fathers, to the city where [King] David dwelt.” After Israel’s creation, the lines were changed to put emphasis on the Jewish hope to return to Israel being held throughout “two millennia,” a hope that had finally come true.
Controversy
Hatikvah has received controversy throughout the decades. More religious Jews disliked its lack of mention of God; some labor Zionists wanted a more socialist version. Most prominently, and still to this day, many minorities in Israel disliked the focus on Jews. However, Hatikvah is the national anthem of the land of Israel, a land which is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people. The proof is in archeology and history, which shows that despite centuries of dispute and conquest, the Jews have always been involved in the land of Israel.
It was in the 17th century B.C.E that the patriarchs of Judaism first settled in the land called Canaan. Famine forced the Jews to flee to Egypt, and they would not return until freed from slavery there in the 13th century. After their return, the Jewish monarchy was established in 1020, and King David ruled over a land now called the Kingdom of Israel. In 722 BCE, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians, who exiled the Jews. Jews returned to Israel in 538 BCE, but then the land was conquered by the Greeks (Hellenists). Jewish warriors, the Maccabees, conquered and revived the land, which they called Judea, from the many Greek regimes. Then the Romans arrived and Judea was ruled by King Herod, a half-Roman, half-Jewish leader. Common Era arrived, and the Jews had a last stand and fell to the Romans at Masada. It was at this time that the Romans named the land Palestine, or Syria Palestina, as a way to hurt the Jewish people and sever their ties with the land. The Holy Land was then ruled by the Byzantines, Persians, English Crusaders and Ottomans. Finally, during Ottoman rule, the First Aliyah occurred; Imber, Cohen, and thousands of other Jews returned home for the first time in hundreds of years. The British conquered Ottoman-controlled Palestine during World War I, and after World War II, the UN created Resolution 181, dividing the land into separate Jewish and Arab states. Finally, Israel existed once again.
So yes, from its earliest days as Canaan, the Kingdom of Israel, or Judea to its modern creation by the United Nations, Israel has always been an inherently Jewish state. But that does not mean that it is not welcoming of others. 21.1 percent of the population of Israel is Arab, who make up the largest minority, and 17.2 percent hold full citizenship. Arabs hold seats in the knesset, Israel’s parliament, and jobs in many sectors of the country. The capital city of Jerusalem is divided into four unique quarters: the Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter and Armenian Quarter, which blend together to create a rich mesh of culture and diversity. Hatikvah does not discredit the importance of minorities in the state, it simply honors why Israel exists — because Jews continued to fight for their home for centuries.
Many other countries also have national anthems or other symbols which reflect the majority. Many flags bear Christian crosses and Islamic crescents, which does not mean that only those religions live in those countries. Many countries also have controversial national anthems: Australia’s is often criticized for not being inclusive of Aboriginal populations; Ireland has two anthems because one is considered “too militaristic.” However, it seems that no matter what Israel does, it becomes a point of outrage.
Usage
Despite controversy over the centuries, Hatikvah has remained a steadfast symbol of Jewish hope and perseverance. It was sung by early Zionists during their first return to the Holy Land, and by Jews in Europe during the 1940s — who sang Hatikvah as a “gesture of collective hope and spiritual resistance in the face of the Nazi Holocaust and Stalinist terror.” At the end of the second world war, the BBC recorded Holocaust survivors singing the anthem in Bergen Belsen on the first Sabbath after the camp’s liberation.
As the national anthem, Hatikvah is now played before Israeli sporting events, and at important events in the country. But Hatikvah has also been sung recently on a more global stage – especially in the aftermath of October 7th. Israeli superstar Noa Kirel sang the anthem in New York ahead of a game between the Brooklyn Nets and Maccabi Ra’anana, and her rendition moved many in the stadium to tears. Hatikvah was played at the end of a New York Fashion Week runway, by a young musician to open a Carnegie Hall show, by Israeli singer Omer Adam and the families of hostages in Gaza, and, in the days after Oct. 7, hundreds of Israelis sang Hatikvah together from their balconies, rooftops and windows. Just like it was over a century ago, Hatikvah remains a symbol not simply of Zionist hope, but of international Jewish hope — the hope that after centuries of exile, antisemitism and genocide, the Jewish people will be able to return home and live in peace.
Jenna Ledley is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].