• .Hatikvah, the national anthem of Israel, is widely sung both by Israelis and Diaspora Jews. This activity explores the nature of the connection of Diaspora Jews to Israel by asking how relevant Hatikvah is to Diaspora Jews. It also calls upon Israelis to explore their feelings about their anthem and the connection of their Diaspora peers to it. The national anthems of participants' countries are used as a basis for discussions about participants' allegiances and sense of belonging to the Jewish people and/or other national groups.

When: Particularly appropriate around the time of the Diaspora country's independence day, or Yom Ha' atzmaut

Materials: Photocopies of Hatikvah, Diaspora participants' national anthem (anthems are included from the following countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England), recording of Hatikvah (not provided in this kit, Statement Signs, copies of Shir Hama'alot (optional, see # 12)

Length: 40 -60 minutes

Group Size: mixed subgroups of 18-20

Staffing: 1 activity leader; other madrichim to distribute Dividing Cards (according to instructions) and circulate among small groups

Preparation: Make Statement Signs (see #6), 3 photocopies of Hatikvah for each small group, copies of national anthem ofDiaspora group.

Procedure:

Done as Full Group

1. Hand out copies of Hatikva. Ideally, play the recording of Hatikvah for the group (or ask Israelis and others who know it to sing it together).

2. Discuss:

.:. How do I feel and what do I do (body language) when I hear/sing Hatikvah? .:. When do I usually hear/sing Hatikvah?

.:. How does singing Hatikva make me feel?

.:. What images come to my mind when I hear Hatikva sung?

3. Give out copies of the Diasporanik's anthem to everybody and ask the group to sing it for the Israelis. [include anthems, background on each, independence day, flag]

4. Diasporaniks share with Israelis:

.:. When do I usually hear/sing my national anthem, what do I do (body language), and

 how do I feel about it?

.:. Do I think a foreign tourist should sing it in my country (at a sports event, etc.)?

.:. What would I have to change in its words for me to be able to sing it with a full heart?

.:. (For Canadians) What is the significance of an anthem in two languages and how do

 you feel about it? Discuss with Israelis: Should Israel's national anthem exist in more

 than one language and should they be direct translations of one another? Which

 languages? (Note: The French and English versions of Canada's anthem are not direct

 translations of one another. The English version was most recently changed in 1968;

 the French was not changed at that time.)

5. Discuss which themes or images appear in each of the national anthems: e.g., beauty, hope, longing, freedom, ethnicity, prosperity, pride, military skill, victory, natural resources, loyalty, war, etc.

6. Post these Statement Signs in three different places in the area, and ask participants to stand near the one that they agree with more:

• .Hatikvah is the national anthem of all Jews.
• .Hatikvah is the national anthem of all Jewish Israelis.
• Hatikvah is the national anthem of all Israelis.

7. Give the three groups time to discuss and solidify their positions (i.e. to come up with a number of arguments together that back up and strengthen their views).

Done in small mixed sroups

8. Split up the group into mixed subgroups of 6-7 people.

9. Ask each group to write their own Jewish youth anthem own tune and decide in which language to write.

Done as full group

10. Ask each subgroup to sing their anthems.

11. Have the entire group vote on the best anthem. The winning anthem can be taught to the entire group and adopted as the theme song for the rest of the mifgash.

Wrapping Up (Optional):

12. Give out copies of Shir Ha'maalot in Hebrew and English. (Group can sing it together if they know it.) Discuss: Would this have been a better choice for Israel's national anthem? Why or why not? [give background]

NA TIONAL ANTHEM OF ISRAEL

HA TIKVAH (THE HOPE)

Independence Day: May 14, 1948

Background: Written by Naftali Herz Imber in 1878 in Jassy, Romania, and probably inspired by the news of the founding of the early Zionist settlement, Petach Tikvah. Set to music that was adapted from a Moldavian-Romanian folk song by Samuel Cohen. A session at the Fifth Zionist Congress (Basle, 1901) concluded with it. It's unofficial adoption as the Zionist anthem took place when it was sung by the entire assembly at the end of the Seventh Zionist Congress (Basle, 1905). At the Eighteenth Zionist Congress (prague, 1933), it officially became the Zionist anthem and was the unofficial anthem of Jewish Palestine. It was sung at the ceremony of the Declaration of the State on May 14, 1948. However, it has not been given official status as Israel's national anthem, which would require an act of Knesset. Hatikvah has undergone some minor and major changes throughout the years.

Former version

Our hope is not yet lost

The age-old hope

To return to the land of our fathers

To the city where David dwelt.

NA TIONAL ANTHEM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

Independence Day: July 4, 1776

Background: Lyrics by Francis Scott Key; music by John Stafford Smith. Adopted as US National Anthem in 1931, but used by the US Army and Navy as the national anthem long before. Key wrote the verses in a burst of excitement after he witnessed an all-night battle between the British and the Americans during the War of 1812, and realized that in the morning the American flag was still waving over Fort McHenry, which the British had been bombarding. The next morning, the poem was printed on leaflets and distributed throughout the city of Baltimore. Soon after it was put to music and became famous. The United States flag still waves continuously over Fort McHenry in Baltimore and over Key's grave in Frederick, Maryland.

NA TIONAL ANTHEM OF AUSTRALIA

ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR

Independence Day: 1 January 1901

Background: Written in 1878 by Peter Dodds McCormick (a Scot), and was originally known as a "patriotic song." It became Australia's national anthem (in somewhat revised form) in 1984 after a referendum of the people. It is played on all official occasions unless the King or Queen (of Great Britain) or their representatives are present; on royal occasions "God Save the Queen (King)" is played.

NA TIONAL ANTHEM OF GREA T BRITAIN

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

Independence Day: None

Background: The melody was written in the early 1700's by Henry Carey. It became the national anthem of Great Britain, which was formed from the union of England, Scotland, and Wales in 1707. It is also the royal anthem of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand and is used in those countries whenever the queen or her representatives are present. Words are changed accordingly when a king reigns.

NA TIONAL ANTHEM OF CANADA

0 CANADA

Independence Day: July 1, 1867

Background: Music by: Calixa Lavalle; French lyrics by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier; original English lyrics by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir. "0 Canada" became Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980, 100 years after it was first sung on June 24, 1880. The song gained steadily in popularity. Many English versions have appeared over the years. The official English version includes changes recommended in 1968 by a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons. The French lyrics remain unaltered.

HA – TIKVAH

HA-TIKVAH ("The Hope"), anthem of the Zionist movement, and national anthem of the State of Israel. The poem was written by Naphtali Herz Imber, probably in Jassy in 1878, and first published as Tikvatenu ("Our Hope") in his Barkai, 1886 (with the misleading note "Jerusalem 1884"). Its inspiration seems to have been the news of the founding of Petah Tikvah; the themes of the poem, together with those of Imber's Mishmar ha-Yarden ("Guarding the Jordan"), show the influence of the German Die Wacht am Rhein and Der Deutsche Rhein (the "River" and "As long as" motives) and the Polish patriots' song which became the national anthem of the Polish republic ("Poland is not lost yet, while we still live"). In 1882 Imber read the poem to the farmers of Rishon le-Zion, who received it with enthusiasm. Soon afterward—probably in the same year—Samuel Cohen, who had come to Palestine from Moldavia in 1878 and settled in Rishon le-Zion, set the poem to a melody which he consciously based on a Moldavian-Rumanian folk song, Carul cu Boi ("Cart and Oxen"). In an atmosphere in which new songs and adaptations became folk songs almost overnight because folk songs were needed, and at a time when no one thought of copyright, the melody became anonymous in an astonishingly swift process of collective amnesia. Thus even Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, who settled in Jerusalem in 1906, approached it as a purely folkloric phenomenon; in his Thesaurus (vol. 4, 1923) he published the first of his comparative analyses of the melody, which have been widely accepted and copied since, not always with the proper credit. The true history of Ha-Tikvah was rediscovered independently by Menashe Ravina and by an Israel amateur musicologist, Eliahu Hacohen. The Moldavian Carul cu Boi is itself only one of the innumerable incarnations of a certain well-known melodic type (or pattern) found throughout Europe in both major and minor scale versions. Probably the earliest printed version of Ha-Tikvah with its melody is found in S. T. Friedland, Vier Lieder mit Benutzung syrischer Melodien... (Breslau, 1895).

Many, but not all, of the changes which intervened between the original text and early forms of the melody of Ha-Tikvah and the current version can still be retraced through songbooks, memoirs, etc. Some of these arose spontaneously; others were made on purpose, either to modify the text according to contemporary opinion or literary criteria, or to achieve the Sephardi syllable-stress instead of the old-fashioned Ashkenazi stress of the original. The standard harmonization is the one established in 1948 by the Italian conductor Bernardino Molinari, who orchestrated Ha-Tikvah for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; another orchestration by Paul Ben Haim is also current. The first English translation of the poem was made by Israel Zangwill, the first German one by Heinrich Loewe. In religious Zionist families there is a tradition of singing Psalm 126 (Be-Shuv Adonai et Shivat-Ziyyon) with the zemirot to the melody of Ha-Tikvah. The words can be found in several of the traditional collections of religious poetry published in Near Eastern communities during the past 50 years, and Ha-Tikvah was therefore entered by Israel Davidson in his Ozar.

Two competitions for a Zionist anthem, the first proclaimed in Die Welt in 1898 and the second by the Fourth Zionist Congress in 1900, came to nothing because of the unsatisfactory quality of the songs composed or suggested. At the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basle in 1901 one of the sessions concluded with the singing of what was still called Tikvatenu. During the Sixth Zionist Congress (Basle, 1903), it was sung by dissenting factions. The Seventh Zionist Congress (Basle, 1905) ended with an "enormously moving singing of Ha-Tikvah by all present" a moment which can be said to have confirmed its status. Although already proposed by David Wolffsohn, the formal declaration of Ha-Tikvah as the Zionist anthem was only made at the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague in 1933. Under the Mandate, Ha-Tikvah was the unofficial anthem of Jewish Palestine. At the Declaration of the State on May 14th, 1948, it was sung by the assembly at the opening of the ceremony and played by members of the Palestine symphony orchestra at its conclusion. However, Ha-Tikvah has not been given official status as a national anthem by a proclamation of the Knesset.

Encyclopedia Judaica