Hatikva, "Hope" is the national anthem of Israel.

The letter

The letter is the first 9 stanzas of a poem called Tikvatenu, "Our Hope," which was written by the poet Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909). Imber was born in a family in Zloczow Hasid, Galicia (a region in central Europe just north of the Carpathians, then part of Austro-Hungarian Empire). Imber was a tireless traveler and was several years working in Palestine. The foundation of the town of Petah Tikvah (Eretz Israel) in 1878, was the inspiration to write Tikvatenu. This poem is included in a book of poems in Hebrew, dated in 1882. After a lifetime of trips continuing Palestine, Constantinople, Europe, Bombay, died in the United States mired in poverty and alcohol. Imber was a Zionist even before the Zionist movement became official.

While there is a burning heart
where the heart beats pure Hebrew
and have eyes that look east
Sion focus and an idea.

Our hope is not lost,
Our eternal hope and sacrosanct,
returning to the Promised Land
David, where he founded the Holy City.

Music

The music is based on an old folk song of Moldova ( "cu Cucuruz their Frunze-n" or "Carul cu Boi", "Cart and Oxen"). Moldovan music also inspired a theme composed by Bedrich Smetana musician, called "The Moldau." The similarity of the subject, and, above all, the Moldavian folk song and the anthem is obvious .. During his stay in Eretz Israel, Imber Tikvatenu read Samuel Cohen, a farmer from Rishon L'Zion (Israel), an immigrant from Moldavia. This joined the poem to music, and became popular since then.

The choice

Since Hatikva was sung at the close of the first Zionist Congress (Basel 1897), the anthem was sung at all congresses until the next Congress 18 (Prague 1933) became the official anthem of the Zionist Movement. Hatikva was proclaimed the national anthem of Israel in 1948, the creation of the state and sung at the opening ceremony of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.

The hymn we know today

The final version was orchestrated by the composer and conductor Paul Ben-Haim (Munich 1897 - Israel 1984). Paul Ben-Haim is the name of Paul Frankenburg hebraizado since he immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1933. Ben-Haim their musical arrangements based on Jewish folk sounds of Romania.

The feeling

Hatikva's words have deep meaning for Jews and for Israel in the diaspora. Meaning reinforced by tragic experiences as happy. It is not only a national anthem but a song of the Jewish people.