48 Friday, September 30, 1977 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

70th Anniversary of Israel's National Anthem

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
(Copyright 1t77, JTA, Inc.)

of our land-it is the Jews, the rich and pros-
perous Jews-Jeshurun grown fat and sleepy,
dreaming the false dream of assimilation with
the people of the pleasant places in which
their lines have been cast. Give us back our
country; this alone will solve the Jewish ques-
tion."

Hatikva—Hope !--is the national anthem
of Israel. It is a Zionist legacy that has in-
spired the masses of the Jewish people not
to abandon faith, to have confidence that
Prophecy of redemption will come true.
The song that became the Hymn of Liber- - The stirring address of the young student
ty for the Jewish people was written by in the great Zangwillian story proceeds to
Naphtali Herz Imber in 1886. It was not say:
adopted as the official Zionism anthem until • "And if gold will not buy back ourland we
the Zionist Congress of 1907. On this 70th an- must try steel. As the National Poet of Israel,
niversary year of Hatikva the anthem re- Naphtali Herz Imber, has so nobly sung
mains the national song both of Israel and
of her supporters, the Jewish state and the (here he broke into the Hebrew Wacht Am
Zionist movement out of whose ideology Rhein' ).
Zangwill at this point included in "chil-
emerged the fulfillment of freedom and the
dren of the Ghetto" Imber's "The Watch on
end of homelessness for the Jewish people.
Before Hatikva there were other challeng- the Jordan," in its entirety. It is a trans-
ing songs which competed with the present lation which helped to make that great song
national anthem for historic honors. "Dort famous.
The pioneers in Palestine for years pre-
vu die tzeder" ("Shom m'kom arotzim")
for a time had more adherents than Ha- ferred this song — Mishmar HaYarden — to
tikva. But the sentimental words and the Hatikva. Mishmar HaYarden is superior to
catchy tune of tratikva gradually caught Hatikva as a literary creation. This is the
the imagination of the masses of the Jewish first stanza in Zangwill's translation:
Like the crash of the thunder
people, and as time passed nothing could
Which spilleth asunder
stop its becoming Jewry's national anthem,
The flames of the cloud,
and chief song of hope.
On our ears ever fallings
The name of Naphtali Herz Imber is
A
voice is heard calling
known to but a few, but his song, Hatikva,
From Zion aloud:
has become among the most famous of the
"Let your spirits' desires
world hymns.
For
the land of your sires"
He was an interesting personality—"a
Eternally burn,
character." He was a liquor addict, but he
From the foe to deliver
had many unusually fine qualities.
Our own holy river,
He was born in Zloczov, Galicia, in 1856,
To Jordan return."
lived for a time in England, came to the
Where the soft-flowing stream
United States, died in a New York-hospital
Murmurs low as in a dream,
in 1909 and his remains were taken to Je-
There set we our watch.
rusalem in 1909. The author of Hatikva —
Our
watchword "The sword
"Hope" — thus had his dream fulfilled. At
Of our land and our Lord"
his funeral, thousands of people chanted the
By Jordan there set we our watch.
Hatikva. The song then had already become
the rallying hymn for millions of Jews. ' The first stanza and the refrain of
Imber's Hatikva are
The Imber story reads like § romance.
In "The Neo-Hebrew Poet," the seventh
:V: lip 71
chapter of his "Children of the Ghetto," Is-
rael Zangwill introduced one of his heroes,
vtp;
Melchitsedek Pinchas, in the following tell-.
ing paragraph:

nr;p

; i rr p '1:M71
i‘*47
Amy) n•ap ktl f

"The poet was a slim, dark little man, with
long, matted black hair. His face was hatchet-
shaped and not unlike an Aztec's. The eyes
were informed by an eager brilliance. He had
a heap of little paper-covered books in one
hand and an extintt cigar in the other."

The prototype of Zangwill's Melchitsedek
Pinchas was the man who was destined to
gain immortality. Melchitsedek Pinchas
was none other than Naphtali Herz Imber,
author of the Zionist song of hope which
originally appeared under the title "Tikva-
thenu."
Imber's name was not kept a secret in
Zangwill's "Children of the Ghetto." Chap-
ter XV, "The Holy Land League," describes
the formation of a Zionist society in London
before the days of Herzl.
Guedalyah the greengrocer was named
president, Melchitsedek Pinchas failed not
only in his aspiration of becoming treas-
urer, but also in being named Collector.
"All felt the incongruity of hanging money
bags at the saddle-bow of Pegasus. Where-
upon Pinchas re-lit his cigar and muttering
that they were all fool-men betook himself
unceremoniously without."
In the course of the discussion, during the
organizational meeting, the student and
cigar commission agent, Joseph Strelitski,
delivered an impassioned address in which
he said:

"Poets will sing for us...journalists will
write for us...There are no obstacles-but our-
selves. It is not the heathen that keeps us out

,nviAan merg

.h

r1ts7 210 7
ri; 1 11

■■■

Nina Salaman's translation of these two
verses from the Hebrew is considered the
best. It reads:

While ever yet unchanged within his breast,
The inmost heart of Israel yearns,
And seeking still the borders of the East,
His loving gaze to Zion turns=
So long our hope will never die,
Yea, this our hope, through ages felt,
Back to our father's land to fly,
Home to the height where David dwelt.

-

Tn the Jewish state—in the settlements
preceding the proclamation of the state of
Israel — the refrain has been changed, the
authorship being unknown, the text being as
follows:

A3 0)PKI 7 141 "

stsVg ni3VP n)er.itl
t3 V
—13 4184 'W
eto7T0111 1i13

tion of Hebrew poems under the title "Bark-
ai" ("Morning Star"). This book, dedicated
to Oliphant, included Hatikva.
Leaving for England after Oliphant's
death, Imber came to London and there be-
friended Israel Zangwill who contributed to
the eccentric poet's immortality by trans-
forming him into the "Melchitsedek Pinch-
as" of "The Children of the Ghetto."
He came to the United States in 1892 and
died in dire poverty in New York City on
Oct. 8, 1909. During his residence in this
country he visited numerous cities, -notably
Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
His brothers, still in Zloczow, published
another collection of his poems in
NAPHTALI HERZ EMBER
under the title "Barkai HeHadash" ( .,e
In free translation, this text in use in Zion New Morning Star"). Unfortunately, most
of the books in this collection were de-
means:
stroyed by fire.
"We have not abandoned our hope
A third volume of his poems was pub-
The hope of two thousand years,
lished in New York City in 1905, after the
To be a free people in our land-
Kishinev pogrom. It is interesting to note
The land of Zion and Jerusalem."
that Imber dedicated this volume to the Em-
While the music of Hatikva has on occa- peror of Japan with whom Russia was at
sion been traced to the "Bohemian Sym- war at the time.
phony" of Smetana, the Czech composer
Five years earlier, in 1900, Imber wrote a
(1824-1884), it has definitely been estab- booklet prophesying the Russo-Japanese
lished by the eminent Jewish musician, Zwi War and predicting Japan's triumph. Appar-
Mayerowitch (1882-1945), late lecturer on ently . the anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia
Jewish liturgic music at Jews' College, Lon- ' made him an ardent supporter of Japan.
don, England, that Hatikva's music was
After leaving Palestine, Imber stayed for
composed by Henry Busato or Russotto, a a while in Egypt and evinced a deep inter-
Sephardic Jew, who based his composition est in mysticism. He became an authority
on the tune used by Sephardic Jews in their on esoteric subjects, his pamphlets on mys-
synagogues for many years for Psalm 117 ticism drawing wide attention. Among them
in the Hallel.
were "The History of the Golden Calf" and
Mayerowitch maintained that this tune "Keynote to Mystic Science."
was published in 1857-20 years before Sme-
He was the translator of Targum Sheni
tana composed his "Bohemian Sym- under the title "Treasures of Ancient Je-
phony"—in "The Ancient Melodies of the rusalem" (1898); was the author of "The
Spanish and Portuguese Jews: Harmonized Education of the Talmud" which was supple-
by Emanuel Aguilar, Prefaced by the Rev. mented by "The Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba."
D. A. DeSola."
Possessing great mastery of the Hebrew
Imber was a most unusual personality language, his rhetorical phrases in Hatikva
who possessed a great gift for humor and helped to give the song the great merit of
satire, whose instant repartee made him being chanted throughout the world, wher-
famous wherever he lived—in this country, ever there are Jews. It became the symbol
in England, in Palestine, in Turkey.
of what the title denotes: HOPE. Unfortu-
Many of his eccentricities are recorded in nately, his ability to write was greatly ham-
Rebecca Kohut's "As I Know Them." Mrs. pered by his excessive use of liquor.
Kohut relates in her book that the original
Among those who reminisced in their writ-
of Hatikva was presented by the eminent ings about Imber were Louis Lipsky and
Hebrew poet to her son-, Dr. George Alexan- Philip Cowen. In his "Memories of an Amer-
der Kohut.
ican Jew," Cowen recalls:
From the notes in Dr. Ismar Elbogen's
"I shall never forget a Zionist meeting at
"A Century of Jewish Life" we learn that Cooper Institute where Imber was thrown
this copy of the original of Hatikva was pre- out because he was in his cups and had be-
sented by Dr. Kohut to the Library of Yale come obstreperous. I had come late to the
University. We also learn that another copy meeting and he buttonholed me outside. As
of Imber's Hatikva, in the author's hand- the meeting was about to close and they -
writing, has been presented to the Hebrew sang Hatikva, he opened the door and
University of Jerusalem by a non-Jewish leered through the crack and said to those
singer, a Mrs. Murphy, who is said to have about him: "They may kick me out, but
known Hebrew.
they must sing my song.'" Cowen also
We are told that Mrs. Murphy gave a con- wrote:
cert at a New York hospital where Imber
mhis
o-
"It was difficult to separate Imber -
from
was a patient, that she included Hatikva in bottle, much to the chagrin of his friends. He
her repertoire and asked Iniber to write the was always half-seas over. Whenever we wish-
words down for her.
ed to find him it was only a question of which
Naphtali Hen Imber, member of an ar- favorite tavern he was in. He was welcome at
dent Hasidic family, first won acclaim in a number as trade followed him.
his native community for a Hebrew poem
"Mayer Sulzberger befriended him, and he•
which dealt with an Austrian patriotic soon became absolutely dependent upon the
theme, in 1870, and the government of Aus- Judge's bounty. In an effort to redeem him,
tria rewarded him with a cash prize.
Judge Sulzberger insisted on his going to live -
His wanderings began after the death of in one of the colonies in South Jersey. Money
his father. He went to Vienna and from was sent to one of the colonists_with instruc-._
there proceeded to Constantinople where he Lions to pay his board weekly and to giv
met the eminent Christian lover of Israel, liberal sums from time to time for his 11.,__,r
Laurence Oliphant, (1829-1888), who propa- and tobacco.
gated the restoration of Zion to the Jewish
"While on a periodic visit to one of the
people nearly 20 years before Dr. Theodor colonies I met him upbraiding his almoner
Herzl wrote "The Jewish State" and organ- for keeping his money from him; robbing
ized the World Zionist Movement and the him, as he said. He caused much trouble at
World Zionist Congress.
the colonies by advising the people that the
Imber and Oliphant—both mystics—be- committee was keeping from them the money
came great friends and together left for Pa- that Baron de Hirsch sent 'for their individual
lestine, Imber serving as Oliphant's secre- use. I heard him say it."
tary.
We also are told by Cowen that "In 'Bo-
Oliphant bought large tracts of land near
hemia' Imber loved to tell of his life in
Haifa. He especially endeared himself with
Haifa, and speak of the Oliphants.
the Zichron Yaakov colonists whom he en-
Eccentric, but a great idealist; "in his
couraged in their hours of stress.
cups," but a devoted lover of Zion; living
Imber lived in Palestine for six years
the life of a semi-vagabond, but never-
(1882-1888). He also lived among the Bed-
theless a great linguist and scholar-
ouins and came to know them well.
Imber's name will live among the very
He wrote essays and poems for Hebrew
great in Zion and Israel.
periodicals and in 1886 produced his collec-

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