no.0 4 1 N o Longer Visitors In Foreign Lands

v

Each month in this space,
L'Chayim will present a Yiddish
lesson entitled "Du Redst Yiddish
(Do You Speak Yiddish?)" whose
aim is to encourage further study of
Yiddish. The lesson will include a
brief story utilizing the Yiddish
words to be studied, a vocabulary
list with English translations and a
family activity which involves using
the new words. Two books which
may be helpful for beginning
Yiddish students are Yiddish for
Beginners by Dr. Joffen and Der
Yiddisher Lerer by Goldin.
Weinreich's English-Yiddish
Dictionary also may be useful. At
the conclusion of each lesson will
be a suggested list of books for
persons who wish to further their
knowledge.
The lessons were prepared by
Mary Koretz of Oak Park. She has
taught both children's and adult

HaTikvah

classes in Yiddish at the Workmen's
Circle.
Following is this month's
lesson:
After bahld 2,000 yawrn of
living as a gehst in the lands of
other people, Israel was
tsurikgehgehbn to the Jewish
people. The United Nations was
mahskem gehvehn to allow this.
President Truman of the
Fahraynikeh Shtehtn voted for it.
Not all the countries that belonged
to the United Nations were agreed,
but the majority prevailed. Now that
the land was tsurikgehgehbn all
Jews from any country were
derloybt to kumen and to become
citizens automatically. In zayer own
land, they were kaynmol obliged to
live in ghettos, be discriminated
gehgin, persecuted in various
vehgn. Jews, ibern whole world
rejoiced, not nor the Israelis.

Geshichteh has taught us the
chochmeh of having your own land.
A gliklichin gehborstog Israel!

chochmeh
gliklichin
gehborstog

Vocabulary

Family Activity

bahld
yawrn
gehst
tsurikgehgehbn
mahskern
gehvehn
Fahraynikeh
Shtehtn
derloybt
kumen
zayer
kaynmol
gehgin
vehgn
ibern
nor
geshichteh

almost
years
visitor
gave back
agreed
was
United
States
allowed
come
their
never
against
ways
over
only
history

wisdom
happy
birthday

Have a birthday party for Israel
using blue and white decorations.
Sing Happy Birthday to Israel. Make
Israeli flags.

Recommended
Reading

English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English
Dictionary by D. M. Harduf, a pocket
edition dictionary. A Pictorial History
of the Jewish People by N. Ausubel,
a reference book. The Wise Men of
Chelm, S. Simon, amusing stories
of foolish people in an imaginary
town.

From Poem To National Anthem Of Israel

By DULCY LEIBLER

A young man from Galicia,
named Naphtali Herz Imber,
inspired by the founding of Petah
Tikvah in 1878, wrote a poem about
his feelings. A farmer from Rishon
LeZion heard the poem and enjoyed
it so much that he promptly set it to
music. The song, originally called
Tikvatenu (Our Hope), later became
HaTikvah, the national anthem of
the State of Israel, and has lifted
the spirits of Zionists around the
world for nearly a century.
Tikvatenu, one of Imber's most
popular poems, was first published
in 1886, althought it had initially
been read in public as early as
1882 to a group of farmers in
Rishon LeZion who received it
enthusiastically. Among them was
Moldavian-born Samuel Cohen, who
decided to set the poem to a
melody based on a traditional
Moldavian-Romanian folksong called
Carul cu Boi (Cart and Oxen).
Many changes were made in
the original text of the poem over
the years, and these have been
traced through old song books,
memoirs, and the like. Firstly, the
title was changed to HaTikvah, then
some words were changed to suit
contemporary opinion, and later the
old-fashioned Ashkenazi syllable
stress was changed to the Sephardi
stress, used in modern Hebrew
today.

But whichever way it was sung,
HaTikvah was always inspiring. At
the conclusion of the Sixth Zionist
Congress in Basle in 1903, there
was an enormously moving singing
of HaTikvah by all present. Since
this was the last Congress presided
over by Theodor Herzl, it is clear
that Herzl did manage to hear
HaTikvah before his untimely death
in 1904. The anthem was sung at all
subsequent Zionist Congresses, but
not until the 18th Congress, held in
Prague in 1933, was it officially
confirmed as the Zionist anthem.

Ovxlm l uwn)

Imber's poem lived on,
becoming the unofficial anthem of
Jewish Palestine under the British
mandate, and at the declaration of
the State of Israel on May 14, 1948,
HaTikva was sung by the assembly
at its opening ceremony.
Naphtali Herz Imber's words
are as old as the Jewish people
itself, yet they are also as young as
the State of Israel, which took them
to its heart.

As long as still within our breasts
The Jewish heart beats true,
So long as still towards the East,
To Zion, looks the Jew,
So long our hopes are not yet lost—
Two thousand years we cherished
them—
To live in freedom in the land
Of Zion and Jerusalem.

World Zionist Press Service

-t.t.r)1K

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS