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It's Time to Hope for a New Jewish

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It's Time to Hope for a New Jewish complete equality of social and political rights of all its Nachum Nir Felix Rosenblueth inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will Zvi Segal David Remez guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman Berl Rapetur education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places David Zvi Pinkas Mordekhai Shattner of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of Aharon Zisling Ben Zion Stemberg the Charter of the United Nations. Moshe Kolodny Bekhor Shitreet Eliezer Kaplan Moshe Shapka THESTATE ISRAEL, is prepared to cooperate with OF Abraham Katznelson Moshe Shertok the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel. WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the It’s time to hope for a new jewish State of Israel into the comity of nations. WE APPEAL-in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months-to the Arab inhabit- Gershon Schwarctz ants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and partici- pate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and With the approach of Yom HaAtzmaut 5758 and the 50th equal citizenship and due representation in all its provi- anniversary of the establishment of the modem Jewish sional and permanent institutions. state, our thoughts naturally turn to Israel. As one who cares for the State of Israel, for the Jewish people, and WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and for the Hebrew language, I have come to the conclusion their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborli- that it is time to change the national anthem of the Jewish ness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation people. It is time to set aside Hatikvah for Yemshalayim and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled shel Zahav. in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its These words are written not without some trepidation. share in common effort for the advancement of the entire A traditionalist at heart, I usually prefer the old and the Middle East. time-honored to the new, improved, and relevant. WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Despite all of this, I must acknowledge two conclu- Diaspora to rally around the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the sions-Hatikvah is replete with weaknesses and flaws, tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them while Yerushalayim shel &hav reflects the needs, the in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old mood and the vision of our day. To understand why dream-the redemption of Israel. Hatikvah can no longer serve as our national anthem, it’s important that we go beyond the emotions of the song to PLACING OURTRUST IN THE ALMIGHTY, WE AFFIX OUR understand some of the history and baggage which this SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF poem carries. THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVN, ON THIS The Role Of Hatikvah SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR 5708 (14TH DAY OF MAY 1948). Hdkvah was written in 1878 by Naphtali Hertz Imber, David Ben-Gurion a struggling poet and Zionist. Imber originally entitled Daniel Auster Meir Wilner-Kovner the poem Tikvatenu, “our hope,” borrowing the metaphor Mordekhai Ben Tov Zerach Wahrhaftig from Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. In this Yitzchak Ben Zvi Herzl Vardi prophecy (chapter 37), Ezekiel sees dry, lifeless bones Eliyahu Berligne Rachel Cohen which God promises to bring to life again: Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Kalman Kahana Rabbi Wolf Gold Saadia Kobashi And He said to me: “0 mortal, these bones are the Meir Grabovsky Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried Yitzchak Gruenbaum Meir David Lowenstein up, our hope [tikvatenu] is gone; we are doomed. ’* Dr. Abraham Granovsky Zvi Luria ...............................*..........................................*........-.*........... Eliyahu Dobkin Golda Myerson GERSHON SCHWARTZ is Rabbi of the South Baldwin Jewish Center, Baldwin NY. I Sh’ma 28/553 3 Imber took the prophetic phrase and reversed it to read lem. hlat*kv& focuses on Diaspora Jewry, on our looking “our hope is not yet gone.” to Zion. Hatikvah conveys a beautiful message but, as our Naomi Shemer’s Yerushulayim shel zahcsv is written anthem, it is problematic. It is difficult to sing in the from an Israel perspective, by an Israeli author. Thus, the cadence and stress of modern Israeli Hebrew. We break beauty of the Golden City radiates outward, as in the our teeth over the Hebrew-singing HaTIKvah, rather prayers. An instant classic, this song deserves to be our than HatikVAH, as we’ve been taught it should be. And national anthem. Its Hebrew is beautifid, flawless. Its this difficulty serves to dramatize the problems of images are classical: Ms. Shemer-herself a Sabra, with Hatikvah in general. the ability to speak of a native love of the land-draws on Imber wrote a sentimentalist Zionist theme song, not biblical and talmudic language and concepts. “Jerusalem the national anthem of a people with its own land. Imber of Gold” not only depicts the city we know and love. A stood outside of Israel, looking eastward (Mizrah), “Jerusalem of Gold” was a gold pendant (probably a writing while in Jassy, a town in northeast Rumania. The tiara) described in the Talmud. Thus, this song bridges song was sung at the Fifth Zionist Congress ‘in Basle in the ancient and the modem. 1901. When it was repeated four years later at the Seventh Zionist Congress in Basle, Tikvatenu became the A Song Of Arrival unofficial anthem of the Zionist movement. (This status was formally confirmed in 1933, though the State of Naomi Shemer recalls the medieval master Yehuda Halevi (“I am less than your most minor poet”) in her Israel itself has never formally adopted Hatikvah as its official anthem.) Much of the energy of the early Zionist aching for Jerusalem. That medieval great wrote beautiful words of longing for Zion, the city. The same love and movement came fiom Europe and America, and a call to look eastward was appropriate. thirsting for the holy city fills Naomi Shemer’s song. The humility expressed by Yehuda Halevi is also reflected in Naomi Shemer: Who are we to sing the praises of the We Need A Song For Today city that has been lauded by poets and kings, and by Today, the Jewish people has a state! And a majority of pets who were kings? Her words remind us never to its Jewish residents hail from nowEuropean countries. forget Jerusalem, even though the city is ours. What a Their ancestry is from Yemen and Ethiopia, from South privilege we have in our day and age, just to be able to Africa and Isbakestan. More Jews than not look, or have travel to Jerusalem and see the golden city. looked, to Israel from directions other than the east. Most important, Yerushuluyim shel zahav serves as a Hatikvah reflects a time of hope and yearning which was, constant reminder of that moment in 1967 when Jerusa- of a hope that has been fulfilled. The words were lem was reunited under Jewish sovereignty, an event changed once, earlier this century, to make them more many of us remember so well. Several years ago, I heard palatable. Imber’s call “to return to the land of our Naomi Shemer in concert as she described the history of ancestors (or fathers), to the city where David dwelled” this unique song and its connection with the capture of was emended after the establishment of the State in 1948 Jerusalem. She wrote it in 1967, just weeks before the to the current summons, “to be a free people in our land, Six-Day War: It was already on people’s lips as the war the land of Zion and Jerusalem.” It’s time that the idea began. The second stanza was a mournful one, drawing was updated again, this time to a new song, reflecting on the doleful opening word of Lamentations, Eikha! today’s ideals, today’s needs and today’s Hebrew. “Alas! Lonely sits the city.” Naomi Shemer wrote: Today, as in the past, when Jews speak or sing of “Alas! The wells of water have dried up. ” On June 10, Israel-whether in our prayers or in our songs-it is 1967, minutes before she was to entertain troops stationed usually to speak of how a return to Israel will brighten in Bethlehem, the news came in: Jerusalem had been the lives of Jews everywhere. In the first paragraph captured! After so many centuries, the Old City was in before the morning Sh’m, we pray (in a line which the Jewish hands again! Vilna Gaon objected to, but which was ultimately ac- How could a poet-songwriter announce this news to cepted by our tradition): the weary Tzahul (Israel Defense Forces) troops? Her announcement came by way of a new stanza, penned only . “Cause a new light to illumine Zion. May we all soon moments before that concert: “We have returned to the share a portion of its radiance.” wells of water ...” As she sang these words, the troops’ We look towards Israel but more importantly, we antici- reaction at first was shock, then utter jubilation as they pate the light which reflects outward from ZiodJerusa- realized what she had just done.
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