Addenda to the 'Hatikvah' Story

Drs. de Sola Pool and Perlzweig Comment on'
lts Melody and Men Who Knew Its Author

On July 217, 1956, • The Jewish
News published an article by
its editor, Philip Slomovitz, on
the "Romantic Story of the
Author of `Hatikvah' —100th"
Anniversary of Na,plitaIi. Herz
Imber." The article was • re-
printed_ in the December 19,56
issue of the Jewish Digest,
under the title "Song of Hope."
Commenting upon it, the Rev.
Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi
of the Spanish PortugeSe_Syna-
gogue, of New York, wrote to
the editor:
"Your article 4Song of Hope'
which I read.. in the December
1956 nurniber of the Jewish
Digest was most interesting arid'
is mainly accurate.
• "May I allow myself one
slight exPansion of Yotir facts?
As to the -melody of Hatikvah,
it is of course borrowed froth.
the Sephardic melody first pub.
lished in my great-grandfather's.
yolume of 1857. But that melody
is traditional in Western Seph-
ardic congregations. Aguilar and
de Sla included in their volume
no melody which they believed
was less thah 200 years old.
"Whether Henry Busato?
Russoto? adapted it to Hatikvah
I am not sure. I lived in Lon-
don at the time and I know no
one of that name. But in the
late 1890s, Perlzweig, • who was
hazzan of the Finsbury _ Park
Synagogue in . London, seated at
the piano in my home, told me
that he had adapted the Hallel
Melody for Hatikvah."
Perlzweig's Comments
The Busato or Russoto names
were mentioned in Slomovitz'
article.
We checked Dr. de Sola's
corm-bents with Dr. Maurice L.
Perlzweig, director of the
terhational affairs department
of the World Jewish Congress,
the son of Hazzan Perlzweig
referred to in Dr. Pool's letter.
Dr. Perlzweig sent us the fol-•
lowing interesting facts, which
add light to the Imber story:
de Sola Pool,
"Dr..
When he
he was a student in Lon-
don, was a pupil of my late
father, Asher Perlweig, Haz-
zanuth. My father was at the
time generally regarded as one
of the leading authorities on
Jewish music, and published a
number of authoritative musical'
texts. I think he was one of
the firSt, if not the first, to
publish mutical scores with the
Hebrew text printed in the He-
brew character and running
from right to left. One of his

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works was a complete set at
the neginoth, not only for the
Torah, but for all the other
Biblical writings that are
chanted . on the special festivals
and fasts in the synagogue. •
"He was one of the earliest
followers of Herzl in. London
and one of the founders. of the
British Zionist movement. He
composed a number of musical'
works in this context, and some
of his songs, which were set
to Hebrew poems written by
the late Dr. T. L. Landau, one
of the leading maskilim and
subsequently Chief. Rabbi of
Johannes/burg, were often sung.
at Zionist meetings and con-
ferences in the early days of
this century.
Recalls Meeting Herzl
"This phase of his life •goes
back beyond my .own recol-
lection, since I was a young
child at the time. But I have a-
clear recollection of b e in-g
- brought to see Herzl, whose
penetrating gaze left a per
manent mark on. me, and of
watching -him as he listened- to
one of my father's songs being
sung.
"So far as any recollection
goes, the publication of the
present musical version of
Hatikvah belongs not to the end
of the last century, but to the
early years of the present. I
was already old enough to, have
a minor hand in it. Of one
thing I am confident, and that
is that it was firSt published
by my father. I am by no
means pertain that it had never
been sung in this form before,
though about this I am hazy.
But I know that it had never
been published until my father
was asked to produce it by the
late R. Masin who was then a
Jewish publisher in London,
and whose descendants still
maintain a bookshop in that
city. The text was hither's, and
there was an English version
written by Nina . Davis, who
was the first Mrs. Radcliffe
Salzman. (Her husband, Dr.
Salzman, who was a Colonel in
the Royal Army Medical _Corps
during the First World War,
died quite recently at, an ad-
vanced age. He played an im-
portant part in Zionist activity
at the time when the Balfour
Declaration was being nego-
tiated.)
- Credits His Father
"I have no reason, to doubt,
and- every reason to believe,
that my father adapted the
Sephardic melody which he had
heard at• the Mildmay Park
synagogue. I was much too
young . to understand t h e
things at .the time. But I know
that this version was pi'iblished
some time before my -Bar Mitz-
vah, which -took place in 19 .018,
and I have a very clear recol-
lection of the four-page leaflet
which was put out by Mazin. It
contained the melody together
with - a piano accompaniment
provided by my father, and the
text in Hebrew (in Latih char-
acter) and English. It also had
something in addition, for which
I was . made responsible.'
"In addition to the music in
the ordinary s•aft notation,
there was the same melody
tranliterated into what was
called tonic sol-fa, which was
taught in the English schools
at the time and which, for all
I know, is still taught. My
father, who was a graduate of
the Vienna Conservatoire, and
belonged to the school of Sulzer,
rather despised this and thought
it barbaric. Since he had taught
me a good deal of musical
theory, and the task Was very
simple, it was assigned to me,
and I remember the feeling of
unaccustomed wealth When I
received eight shillings for the
assignment. Eight shillings . in
those days .was roughly equiva-
lent to two dollars, but in those
days a dollar meant more, alas!
than it 'does today.
No Copy of First Edition
"I , wish I could tell you more,
but I have limited myself for

the most part_ to details . of
which I have a clear - recollec-
tion. My way of life:. at the
moment is so charged with
responsibilities 'that I have had'
no. time to collect the papers
which I would like to have,
and I do not even possess a
copy of •this. first edition of the
melody of Hatikvah. There is a
Jewish organist in•Philadelphia
who once. told me that he had
a• more or less complete collec-
tion of my father's works, but
I - have not had time to go down
and look at them, or even to
talk to quite a ' number of
people. who were either pupils
of his or sang in his choirs; he
was or some -years the con-
ductor of ,the Choir of Hazzanim
in London. BUt I - leave for
England next week to attend a
meeting of our World Execu- .
tive, • • and I hope to have the
opportunity of talking to mem-
bers of my family about 'it, and
perhaps even the heirs of the
publisher. I would give a great
deal to possess a copy of it now.
"I hope in the not too distant -
future to have an opportunity
of - .talking to you abOut some
of the early phases of - the Zion-
ist Movement, with which . in
one way or another I was
closely associated. One at my
father's conternporaries, who

fortunately still flourishes, is
the Rev. J. K. Goldbloom who
is still a leader of the Zionist
Federation in - Britain and of
the actions: . Committee He and
my father were the . first klei-
kedesh who were active in the
Zionist movement in England,
and at a time when the Chief
Rabbi had virtually banned it.
"With kind regards, I am
"Yours: sincerely, .
"Maurice - L. Perlzweig
"P.S. I remember a visit of
Imber'S to my London home
when I was a very young child,
and when he attempted to play
the piano hi what seemed to me
to be a rather peculiar manner.
It was expla•ned to me subse-
quently that this was due to

.

his having yielded to his addic-
tion to drink." ,
Slight Ammendation
A copy of this letter was sent
to Dr. Pool, who commented
upon ainty:
thanks for sending me
a copy of Dr. Perlzweig'• in-
teresting letter,
"I have only one very trivial
correction to - make. He states
time a pupil
that I was at .
of his father's. This was a privi-
lege which I never enjoyed."
These facts are offered in the
interest of full knowledge about
Imber, Hatikvah, its melody
and the historical facts about
the people who were interested
in them and in Jewish music.
—P. S.

'DAVID DESOW, C.P.A.

AND

LEON BELT N, -C.P.A.

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