Hatikvah
| הַתִּקְוָה | |
Poem lyrics below an Israeli flag | |
National anthem of Israel | |
| Lyrics | Naftali Herz Imber, 1877 |
|---|---|
| Music | Shmuel Cohen, 1887–1888 |
| Adopted | 1948 |
| Audio sample | |
Instrumental rendition by the United States Navy Band
| |
Hatikvah (Hebrew: הַתִּקְוָה, romanized: hattiqvā, [hatikˈva]; lit. 'The Hope') is the national anthem of the State of Israel. Part of 19th-century Jewish poetry, the theme of the Romantic composition reflects the 2,000-year-old desire of the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel in order to reclaim it as a free and sovereign nation-state. The piece's lyrics are adapted from a work by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Złoczów, Austrian Galicia. Imber wrote the first version of the poem in 1877, when he was hosted by a Jewish scholar in Iași.