Hatikvah is the national anthem of the state of Israel.
It was towards the middle of the 19th century that the music of what was initially a symphonic poem was composed in Prague by the composer Bedrich Smetana Vltava, with the title Vltava. Later on, in 1878, the lyrics were written by in Ukrainian by Naftali Herz Imber, with the title Tikvatenou, meaning Our Hope. Finally, it was in 1888 that Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldova, newly settled in Palestine, adapted Naftali Herz Imber’s lyrics to Bedrich Smetana Vltava’s music.
Thanks to its rapid popularity, Hatikvah became the Zionism anthem and was sung by the Warsaw ghetto Resistance during the Second World War when Germany occupied Poland. It was adopted in 1948, during the declaration of independence of the Israeli state by David Ben Gourion, but was only officially dedicated the national anthem of Israel by the Knesset in November 2004.
Bearer of a formidable and heart-rending history, Hatikvah fell in line with the prophecy of the Hebrew bible, which glorifies the Jews exiled by the Diaspora, praying since two millennia to return to the land of their ancestors.
Israel : Hatikvah
