[HANASHIR:11391] Hatikvah--an initial inquiry.

[Judah Cohen <jcohen...>]

Okay--I've done some research on Hatikvah and want to share a little of the
info I've found, cautioning that there are I'm sure several sources I
haven't tapped yet--and as always I invite any corrections.  Some of this
has already been discussed in other forms.  Nonetheless, the picture looks
quite interesting.

1.  In all editions of Hatikvah I've seen that include "Virushalayim" as its
final word, it appears as "Viruahslayim"; this suggests that
"B'Yerushalayim" is indeed an error that's crept into some editions more
recently.

2.  But here's where things get interesting:
 Although one source notes that the Zionist congress adopted Hatikvah in
1877 as its national anthem, apparently two different versions of the song
developed over time and were sung concommittently.  OUTSIDE of Israel, the
song ended with:

 Od lo advah tikvateinu,
 HaTikvah hanoshanah,
 Lashuv b'eretz avoteinu,
 LaIr BaDavid chana.

 And in some cases included up to five verses (with the "Od Lo Avdah"
section as the chorus between each verse")

 INSIDE Israel, at least as far back as 1928 (in a collection by Ana Shomer
Rothenberg entitled "Songs Heard in Palestine"), the song ended with the
lyrics we currently sing.  Perhaps it goes back further, but I haven't yet
found an earlier source.
 Once the state of Israel was established, it seems that the Israeli version
slowly became the standard version of Hatikvah sung.  This did not all
happen spontaneously, however--a number of American publications printed
just after 1948 still included the "Outside of Israel" version, and 1949's
"The Jewish Center Songster" (Bernard Carp, ed.) included both versions but
mentioned that the second one "is the version sung in the newly established
State of Israel" (p. 96).  Harry Coopersmith's 1950 publication "The Songs
We Sing," however, includes only the "current" version.

3.  That all said:  NONE of the "in Israel" versions of Hatikvah I found
(i.e., those that use the same lyrics we sing today) included the word
"BAT."  To me, this means it was added sometime later and adopted into the
"official" version of the anthem.  I haven't looked too far beyond the 1950s
at this point, so maybe some obvious official declaration effected the
change, and I just haven't come across it yet.

4.  Finally, a side note to Adrian's post noting that the Reform movement
was not necessarily *anti*-zionist:  I was rather surprised to discover that
the 1936 Union Hymnal actually includes "Hatikvo" with its "outside Israel"
lyrics (#266).  But the story doesn't end there--in the 1957 hymnal,
"Hatikvo" also appears, but its lyrics remain unchanged.  What does this
say?  I'm not sure, but I'd be willing to speculate that while the Reform
movement did not *reject* the Zionist agenda (and may have promoted it to
some extent), it also wasn't immediately driven to identify completely with
the new State of Israel either.

Clearly, there's much more to be contributed to this discussion; but for
now, I hope this makes a useful and plausible framework.

Hope all are well.  Sometime soon I'll try to get to those rounds.
Judah. 

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