JewishSong.org
The story of a song
Hava Nagila
The world's most famous song of Jewish joy: a melody that began without words. English adaptation by Walter J. Kin, performed by Riglis Band.
A melody that waited a century for its words
If the whole world knows one Hebrew phrase set to music, it is this one. "Hava nagila" means "come, let us rejoice." It is sung at weddings and bar mitzvahs, in stadiums and concert halls, by people who could not tell you what the words mean, and it works anyway. Joy needs very little translation.
But the song did not begin as a song. It began as a melody with no words at all.
19th century - A nigun is born
Somewhere in the Hasidic world of Eastern Europe, in the circle of the rebbes of Sadigura in Bukovina, a nigun appears: a wordless melody, sung for its own sake, as prayer and celebration at once. Hasidim believed a melody without words could rise higher than any text. This one would prove them right.
1918 - The nigun gets its words
In Jerusalem, the cantor and scholar Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, remembered today as the father of Jewish musicology, arranges the old nigun and sets a short Hebrew text to it for a public celebration: "Come, let us rejoice and be glad. Awake, brothers, with a joyful heart." The words echo the Psalms; the melody carries them like a dance. The song takes off almost immediately.
A riddle of authorship
Who exactly wrote those few Hebrew lines is a genuine scholarly puzzle. Idelsohn claimed them; years later his young student Moshe Nathanson said the teacher had assigned the class to set words to the old nigun, and that his were the ones chosen. Musicologists still tell both versions. The encyclopedia's answer: the melody belongs to the Hasidim of Sadigura, the words to Idelsohn's Jerusalem classroom, and the joy to everyone.
Mid-20th century - The world learns to dance to it
The song crosses every border a song can cross. Harry Belafonte sings it at Carnegie Hall and calls it one of his signatures. It is recorded in dozens of languages, played by wedding bands on every continent, danced as the hora with chairs lifted high. A Hasidic melody from Bukovina becomes, by every measure, the most recognized Jewish song in the world.
The Russian chapter
For the project "Jewish Songs. In Russian," poet Olga Anikina turns the three-line Hebrew exclamation into a full Russian poem: joy as a daily choice, life given to us for a reason, doors thrown open wide. Performed by Elechka, it lets millions of Russian speakers sing the world's most famous Jewish song in their own language for the first time.
Since 2018 - The project's versions
Under RIGLI, Walter J. Kin records Hava Nagila again and again, the way a living tradition should be recorded: concert versions, a lyrical wedding version, a version for a stage adaptation in development, and the new English adaptation performed by Riglis Band, the one playing on this page.
Why this matters
Joy is a choice
Hava Nagila was written in hard years, by people who had every reason not to rejoice. That is precisely the point. In Jewish tradition joy is not a mood that happens to you; it is a decision you make, a commandment you fulfill with your feet and your voice. The song is that decision set to music.
It is also living proof of something this project is built on: the world is glad to sing Jewish songs. Not out of politeness, but because the songs are that good. People who know nothing else in Hebrew know these two words.
"Hava Nagila proves the world will sing Jewish joy in any language. Our job is to give it more languages to sing it in."
- Walter J. Kin, on the project's approach
The Russian version makes the choice explicit: joy as a philosophy of resilience, sung plainly, so a child can understand it. The English adaptation carries the same spirit into the language today's children actually speak.
On authorship and attribution
The melody is traditional, a Hasidic nigun of the Sadigura court; the project's arrangements of it are new. The short Hebrew text of 1918 is credited to Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, with Moshe Nathanson's claim honestly remembered alongside. The Russian poem by Olga Anikina and the English adaptation by Walter J. Kin are new works that honor the original rather than replace it. Every generation gets to write its own version. That is how a nigun survives a century.
The traditional words
Two lines the whole world knows
Hava nagila, hava nagila
Hava nagila ve-nismecha
Come, let us rejoice, let us rejoice and be glad
Hava neranena, hava neranena
Hava neranena ve-nismecha
Come, let us sing, let us sing and be glad
Uru, uru achim
Uru achim belev sameach
Awake, awake, brothers, awake with a joyful heart
The project's Russian poem and English adaptation are new texts. Their full lyrics and lead sheets are shared through licensing.
Еврейские песни. По-русски.
Хава Нагила
The Russian version: Olga Anikina's poem about joy as a choice, sung by Elechka. "Life is given to us for a reason," it says, and throws the doors open wide.
Credits
This version
| Melody | Traditional Hasidic nigun (Sadigura), arranged by Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Hebrew words | Jerusalem, 1918: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, with Moshe Nathanson's claim remembered |
| English adaptation | Walter J. Kin |
| Russian poem | Olga Anikina (commissioned) |
| Performance | Riglis Band (English) / Elechka (Russian) |
| Production | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Copyright | Registered (SR0000894784) · ISRC CBEYJ2570443 |
| Project | Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org |
License
Listen freely. License to perform.
For weddings, films, stages, and schools
You may watch, share, and enjoy these recordings freely. For performances, recordings, film and media placements, and printed arrangements of the project's versions, licensing is handled simply and respectfully by Rigli Publishing: start at the song's licensing page.
The English adaptation and the project's arrangements were created for RIGLI by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The Russian poem is by Olga Anikina, performed by Elechka. The traditional melody and the 1918 Hebrew text belong to the whole Jewish people.