Is "Hatikvah" Jewish?

[shirona <shirona...>]

A few years ago I attended a seminar on the origins of "Jewish Music", and one 
of the examples studied was our very own Hatikvah.  Most people think that the 
melody was taken from Smetana's "Moldava" - which already implies that it was 
"shnorered" from another (non Jewish...) source.  However - according to some 
musicologists, the melody for Hatikvah can be traced to a Romanian 
horse-and-buggy song. The same tune that might have influenced Smetana...  But 
either way - our own National Anthem is not Jewish.  So what kind of excuses do 
we need to come up with to justify this?

How can we make any claims at all - on what Jewish music is or isn't?  
Wandering for two thousand years - we "shnorered" from whatever culture we 
lived with at the time, mixed it with what we already had, moved to other 
countries - and the process goes on and on.  If anything - we were probably the 
most effective proponents of "cultural cross-pollination" around.

But what difference does all this make?  Does it really matter if the music we 
use was genuinely "created" by "us", or somehow borrowed, intentionally or 
unintentionally,  from another source? Is it important to hang on to those 
definitions?  Music is music...  Traditions, taste and styles change and evolve 
with time.

OK Robert... I'm now waiting for your "Ipcha Mistabra" response.  If you don't 
know what that means - it's in Aramaic.  Look it up.

Shirona

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* * *  Singer / Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music * * * 
          www.shirona.com

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