“The truth is that Hatikvah (The Hope) is a
perfect example of the early Zionist movement’s
creative drive, and haphazard, experimental
character,” says musicologist Prof. Edwin
Seroussi of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
in his article Hatikvah: Conceptions, Receptions
and Reflections (Published in Yuval Online 9
2015, www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il).

Words
Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) wrote the first
drafts of the poem Hatikvah in Iaşi (Rumania)
in 1877, or in Zloczow (Galicia in Poland; today
Zolochev in Ukraine) in 1878. Imber continued
to revise his poem, adding stanzas after he
immigrated to Palestine in 1882. The song
was first published as Tikvatenu (Our Hope) in
Imber’s inaugural collection of poems Barkai
(Morning Star, Jerusalem, 1886).

Music
In 1884, Imber read his poem Tikvatenu to the
farmers of Rishon le-Tziyyon (one of the earliest
Zionist settlements in Ottoman Palestine), who
received it with enthusiasm. Soon after, settler
Samuel Cohen (1879-1940)—who immigrated to
Palestine from Rumania in 1888—set the poem
to a melody he borrowed from the Moldavian-
Rumanian song, Carul cu Boi.
The song found its way to Breslau by way of
an envoy from the Land of Israel. It had rapidly
gained in popularity in Europe, especially
through its performances at the Zionist
Congresses in 1900 and 1903.
From a Zionist song to a national anthem
The road to Hatikvah becoming the anthem of
the Zionist movement was not a straight one.
Despite its broad early acceptance as one of
the main songs of Zion, Zionist institutions and
leaders did not rush to adopt it as their anthem.
Only at the Seventh Zionist Congress (Basel,
1905), which ended with an “enormously moving
singing of Hatikvah by all present,” did it begin
to take on the status of a patriotic song with a
national anthem profile. Still, Hatikvah wasn’t
formally declared the Zionist anthem until
years later, at the Eighteenth Zionist Congress
in Prague in 1933, following a motion that
addressed the movement’s flag and anthem.
Under the British Mandate of Palestine, Hatikvah
was the unofficial anthem of the Jewish
settlement in Palestine. It was sung during the
Declaration of the State of Israel ceremony on
May 14, 1948, and then played by members of
what was then called the Palestine Orchestra
(now The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra).
Ironically, Hatikvah did not officially become
Israel’s national anthem until November 10, 2004,
when it was sanctioned by The Knesset in an
amendment to the “Flag and Coat-of-Arms Law.”

Hatikvah on this album:
Hatikvah arranged here by Raymond Goldstein
for cantor and choir, brings about a new choral
interpretation never introduced before for
Hatikvah. Goldstein based his setting on the
original harmonization of Paul Ben Haim (1897-
1984), a German-born Jewish composer who
immigrated to Israel and became the country’s
most prominent composer of the 20th century.
This arrangement conveys a novel sound with
its rich harmony, and vocal phrases sung
without text interwoven between verses.