Orgin of Hatikvah

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

Sandy is right.

According to the _Encyclopedia Judaica_ (1972), pp.1470-1472, Naphthali
Herz Imber wrote the words, probably at Iasi, Moldavia in 1878. When
Imber was in Palestine (1882), he read the poem to a group of Jewish
farmers at the settlement of Rishon le-Ziyyon, and one of these, Samuel
Cohen, who had emigrated from Moldavia in 1878, set it to the tune of a
well-known Rumanian folk song, _Carul cu Boi_ (Cart and Oxen). The
resemblance to the tune of The Moldau by Smetana is due to the fact that
various versions of this tune were known throughout Eastern Europe as
folk songs.

Incidentally, all of this was hashed out a mere eight months ago on this
List.

Itzik-Leyb