All anthems

Israel National Anthem

התקווה

Hatikvah

Written 1878

Adopted 2004

Lyrics Naftali Herz Imber

Music Samuel Cohen (based on Moldavian-Romanian folk tune)

🌅 Hope 🏛 Identity 💪 Resilience 🕊 Freedom | Hopeful

Key Facts

1. Hatikvah is played in a minor key, making it one of the very few national anthems worldwide with a melancholic rather than triumphant musical tone.
2. At the 1948 declaration of independence, the assembled crowd spontaneously broke into Hatikvah before it had been officially designated as the state anthem.
3. The original poem had nine stanzas, but only a modified version of the first stanza and the refrain are used as the anthem, with several key words changed over the decades.

Israel National Anthem Lyrics

כָּל עוֹד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח קָדִימָה עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ בְּאֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם

Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals

Analysis

Editorial

Written in 1878 by Naftali Herz Imber, a poet living in Lviv (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Ukraine). The melody is believed to derive from a 17th-century Italian song, which also influenced Smetana's 'Vltava' (Moldau). The title means 'The Hope,' and the anthem expresses a 2,000-year longing for return to the ancestral homeland.