What is the national athem in Israel?

Answer 1

Israel's national anthem is entitled "Hatikvah", loosely translated in English as "The Hope".

The text of Hatikvah was written by the Galician Jewish poet Naphtali Herz Imber

in Zolochiv in 1878 as a nine-stanza poem "Tikvateynu" ... "Our Hope". In this poem,

Imber puts into words his thoughts and feelings in the wake of the establishment

of Petah Tikva, one of the first Jewish settlements in Ottoman Palestine. Published

in Imber's first book, the poem was subsequently adopted as the anthem of

Chovevei Zion, and later of the Zionist Movement at the First Zionist Congress

in 1897. The text was later revised by the settlers of Rishon LeZion, subsequently

undergoing a number of other changes.

The melody has appeared in the Folk Music of many cultures, dating back at least

to 17th Century Italy, and was famously used by the Czech composer Bedrich

Smetana as the second movement ... entitled "The Moldau" ... of his Symphonic

poem "Ma Vlast", celebrating his native Bohemia. As Israel's anthem, it was arranged

by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Bessarabia.

The British Mandate government briefly banned the public performance of Hatikvah

in 1919, in response to an increase in Arab anti-Zionist political activity.

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, Hatikvah was unofficially

proclaimed the national anthem. However, it did not officially become the national

anthem until November 2004, when it was sanctioned by the Knesset.