English: The Hope | |
---|---|
HaTikvah | |
The lyrics of "Hatikvah" below an Israeli flag
|
|
National anthem of Israel |
|
Lyrics | Naftali Herz Imber, 1878 |
Music | Samuel Cohen, 1888 |
Adopted | 1897 (First Zionist Congress) 1948 (unofficially) 2004 (officially) |
Music sample | |
|
"Hatikvah" (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, pronounced [hatikˈva], lit. English: "The Hope") is the national anthem of Israel. Its lyrics are adapted from a poem by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Złoczów (today Zolochiv, Ukraine), then part of Austrian Poland. Imber wrote the first version of the poem in 1877, while the guest of a Jewish scholar in Iași, Romania. The romantic anthem's theme reflects some Jews' hope of moving to the Land of Israel and declaring it a sovereign nation.
The text of Hatikvah was written in 1878 by Naphtali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Zolochiv (Polish: Złoczów), a city nicknamed "The City of Poets", in Austrian Poland, today part of the Ukraine. In 1882 Imber immigrated to Ottoman-ruled Palestine and read his poem to the pioneers of the early Jewish colonies - Rishon Lezion, Rehovot, Gedera and Yesud Hama'ala.