Hatikvah (literally "The hope") is the national anthem of Israel. The text was composed by the Galician poet Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) in Jassy in 1878. The music is based on an old Moldavian folk song ("Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus"), arranged by Samuel Cohen. It was orchestrated in 1897 by the composer Paul Ben-Haim and in 1897, on the first Zionist congress, it became the hymn of Zionism, and on the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, it was proclaimed as the national anthem of Israel.
Here is the text in English.
- As long as deep in the heart
- The soul of a Jew is murmuring,
- And to the edges of the East
- And eye towards Zion is watching,
- Still our hope is not lost,
- The hope of two thousand years,
- To be a free people in our land:
- The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
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כל עוד בלבב פנימה
עוד לא אבדה תקותנו, |
Kol od balevav
P'nimah -
Od lo avdah tikvatenu |
