Hatikvah The Hope

National anthem of the State of Israel. Hebrew by Naftali Herz Imber (1878), Russian by Olga Anikina (2017), performed by Elechka.

National anthem of the State of Israel. Hebrew by Naftali Herz Imber (1878), Russian by Olga Anikina (2017), performed by Elechka.

Three layers, one prayer, 148 years apart

"Hatikvah", "The Hope", began as a nine-stanza Hebrew poem called "Tikvateinu" ("Our Hope"), written in 1878 by Naftali Herz Imber.

A decade later Samuel Cohen set its opening lines to a folk melody from his Bessarabian youth, a melodic line whose ancestry runs through European folk song for at least three centuries.

In 1948 the resulting song was adopted as the national anthem of the newly declared State of Israel.

This page presents the song as a three-layer prototype: the Hebrew original, Olga Anikina's Russian poetic adaptation (2017), and an English layer that is still being written. The voice in the video is Elechka, guitar, vocal, a quiet conversation with history.

Tikvateinu Our Hope

Naftali Herz Imber wrote "Tikvateinu" in 1878, nine stanzas of return, longing, and the refusal to give up on Zion.

He drafted the opening in Iasi (in present-day Romania), revised it after his arrival in Ottoman Palestine, and published the full poem in his 1886 collection Barkai ("Morning Star").

The modern anthem uses an adapted first stanza and a refrain that Imber later reshaped: "Our hope is not yet lost" replaced his original "Our ancient hope has not been lost."

The melody, a contested lineage. The tune now sung as Hatikvah was arranged by Samuel Cohen around 1888 from a folk melody he knew from his Bessarabian (Moldavian) childhood.

The same melodic contour shows up across the European folk tradition: the 16th-century Italian "La Mantovana" ("Ballo di Mantova"), the Romanian "Carul cu boi" ("Cart with Oxen"), the Spanish-Sephardic "Virgen de la Cueva," the Swedish "Ack Varmeland, du skona," and, most famously, Bedrich Smetana's symphonic poem "Vltava" ("The Moldau," 1874).

The exact line of descent is contested. Scholars agree the family is older than any single named work in it; the question is whether Cohen drew directly from a Romanian folk source, from a synagogue niggun built on the same contour, or from a chain that includes both.

What is certain is that Cohen's setting fixed one particular variant onto Imber's poem, and that variant became the anthem of a state.

Anikina's Атиква

Olga Anikina's Russian adaptation, recorded in 2017, is the version performed by Elechka in the video above. It is not a translation in the dictionary sense.

It is a poetic rewriting that carries the same prayer into a different language, a different prosody, and a different lyric tradition.

What she preserved, what she transformed, what she invented

What Anikina preserved is the core: the two-thousand-year hope, the gaze east toward Zion, and the closing refrain in Hebrew, "Аин ле Цион цофия" and "Эрец Цион Ерушалаим", carried into the Russian text untranslated.

That preserved Hebrew is the load-bearing element of the whole adaptation.

It is the bridge between two languages and the anchor that says: this remains a Jewish song even when it speaks Russian.

What she transformed and invented is the entry. Imber begins inside the body: "As long as in the heart within / A Jewish soul still yearns." Anikina begins above, with a star, with a sky, and only then descends into the heart. She also adds a stanza that has no counterpart in Imber: "Why do you beat why do you reach where / O my winged soul."

This is direct second-person address to one's own soul, a move that belongs to the Russian Romantic lyric tradition more than to a Hebrew national anthem. The Russian voice grafts a personal dialogue onto a collective prayer, and trusts the preserved Hebrew refrain to keep the result anchored to its source.

The English layer is open

The third layer of this prototype, an English adaptation that meets the Hebrew and the Russian at the same artistic register, has not yet been written. We are not interested in a literal English carry-over from either source.

We are looking for a lyricist who can do for English what Anikina did for Russian.

Walter J. Kin's English adaptation is not yet written. We are looking for English lyricists who can carry Anikina's poetry into English at the same artistic level. Write to doublesign28@gmail.com, short pitch first, full lyric after.

In the meantime, turn on captions in the video above and sing along with the Hebrew refrain and Anikina's Russian text.

This page

Talk about it, then sing it

History

In 1878 a young poet named Naftali Herz Imber wrote a poem called "Tikvateinu", "Our Hope." He had just arrived in the Land of Israel and was overwhelmed by its ancient beauty.

The poem had nine stanzas; today's anthem uses only the first two, with the refrain slightly changed.

About ten years later a musician named Samuel Cohen set the words to a folk melody he had heard as a child in Bessarabia. In 1948, when the State of Israel was declared, this became its national anthem.

Theme

"Hatikvah" means "The Hope." It is the hope of a people who, even after being scattered for two thousand years, kept looking toward one specific place: Zion and Jerusalem.

The song says, as long as a single Jewish heart still yearns, the hope is not lost.

The mission, in one paragraph

We don't let these songs sink into oblivion. Yiddish as a living language is fading, and that we cannot stop. But we know how to preserve and revive our Jewish songs.

We are already doing it, thanks to the literary genius of Olga Anikina and the voice of Elechka. Russian-speaking people on Earth, and there are more than 250 million of them, got lucky.

Now they can listen to and sing Jewish songs in their native language. But what about everyone else? That is where we come in: JewishSong.org, Jewish Songs for All.

Three voices from the audience

A wonderful anthem. Such a piercing melody, no belligerence in it at all. I wish you victory. I am Russian, I live in Russia.

@ЛитвиноваЕлена-ц3ч - 186 likes - on the Russian Hatikvah video

Thank you for the translation and the performance. I'm not even Jewish, I have no Jewish relatives, and yet a lump rises in my throat and it grips the soul. It is hard even to call it a song. You hear in it the history, the longing, the aspirations of an ancient people. A mighty song. I cannot stop listening.

@Aleksandra.. - 161 likes - on the Russian Hatikvah video

You have a stunning voice. Jewish songs turn the soul inside out, I sing and I cry. The genes answer.

@НатальяЖигангирова - 149 likes - on the Russian Hatikvah video

Free to sing, teach, and share.

Yours for your school, choir, or family

You may sing, perform, teach, and share this prototype for non-commercial purposes: schools, synagogues, JCCs, choirs, camps, museums, families, and individuals.

Keep the credit to the original authors and JewishSong.org, and please do not charge for the performance or resell the files.

Hebrew original by Naftali Herz Imber (1878); Russian poetic adaptation by Olga Anikina (2017); performed by Elechka; creative producer Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Part of JewishSong.org, Jewish Songs for All. For-profit or commercial use is handled separately.

Want to write the English layer?

We are an open platform. Lyricists, translators, and singer-songwriters are welcome to propose an English Hatikvah at the artistic level Anikina set in Russian. Reach out, short pitch first, full lyric after.

Music European folk lineage, arr. Samuel Cohen (1888)

Original Hebrew Naftali Herz Imber (1878)

Russian lyrics Olga Anikina, 2017

English lyrics In progress, invitation to lyricists

Performer Elechka

License Free, non-commercial

Listener voice

1878, Hebrew Naftali Herz Imber A nine-stanza poem of return. Written in Iasi, refined in Palestine. The modern anthem keeps the first stanza and a transformed refrain.

Listener voice

2017, Russian Olga Anikina A poetic adaptation, not a translation. Opens above in the cosmos, then descends into the heart. Keeps the Hebrew refrain verbatim as a bridge.

Listener voice

2026, English Invitation to lyricists Not yet written. We are looking for English lyricists who can carry Anikina's poetry into English at the same artistic level.

Music: European folk lineage, arr. Samuel Cohen, c. 1888

Hebrew original: Naftali Herz Imber, "Tikvateinu", 1878

Russian lyrics: Olga Anikina, 2017, poetic adaptation

English lyrics: Invitation to lyricists, 2026

Performance: Elechka, guitar and voice

Creative producer: Walter J. Kin

Project: Jewish Songs for All, JewishSong.org