About Hatikvah
“Hatikvah” (“The Hope”) is today known as the national anthem of Israel, but its origins come from an 1878 nine-stanza Hebrew poem entitled “Tikvatenu” (“Our Hope”) by poet Naftali Hertz Imber (1856-1909). The poem describes the desire of the Jewish people to return to the land of Israel. In 1887, Shmuel Cohen, a Romanian Jewish immigrant to Palestine, set the poem to the melody we hear today, which is adapted from the Moldavian folk song “Carul cu Boi” (Cart and Oxen). “Hatikvah” spread rapidly in the late 19th-century as part of the new culture of secular Hebrew songs and folk dances, such as the hora.
Throughout the 20th-century, “Hatikvah” continued to serve as an enduring symbol of Jewish nationhood and Israeli identity. In 2004, the State of Israel finally designated the song as the Israel national anthem.
The text for the present-day version of “Hatikvah” consists of the following:
Kol od baleivav penimah
Nefesh yehudi homiyah,
Ulfa’atey mizrah kadimah,
Ayin letsiyon tsofiyah;
Od lo avdah tikvateinu,
Hatikvah bat shenot al payim,
Lihyot am hofshi be’artzeinu,
Eretz tziyon veyerushalayim.
As long as Jewish spirit
Yearns deep in the heart,
With eyes turned East,
Looking towards Zion.
Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two millennia,
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
ABOUT THE NEW “HATIKVAH” ARRANGEMENT
Composer Maxwell Karmazyn has made a new arrangement of the beloved anthem for the Global Hatikvah initiative, written for the Israel Philharmonic, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Band, and the global virtual choir of thousands. Karmazyn took inspiration from the Bernardino Molinari arrangement that was prepared for Israel’s founding in 1948 and is considered the standard arrangement in most Israel performances today, and added his own unique twist.
“Because Global Hatikvah is a mixed media project, I approached the piece in a cinematic/film music style, with the goal to tell a story. The arrangement begins sparsely, as one voice after another comes in to result in a massive and glorious finale with hundreds—hopefully thousands—of singers. The symbolism there is that ‘Hatikvah’ (hope) for the state of Israel begins individually, but when all brought together, shows us how anything is possible.” – Maxwell Karmazyn
ABOUT MAXWELL KARMAZYN
Maxwell Karmazyn is an ASCAP Award winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He’s recorded for and shared the stage with artists such as John Williams, Stevie Wonder, Hans Zimmer, Andrea Bocelli, Björk, Imagine Dragons, P!NK, James Blake, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Steely Dan, John Legend, and The Beach Boys. He has most recently contributed music for Steven King’s Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, and Awkwafina’s Quiz Lady. His music can be heard on Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Netflix Cobra Kai, Apple TV+ The Snoopy Show, CBS Television Bull, Blue Bloods, Fox NeXt, Dreamworks animated film Trolls, and Guillermo Del Toro’s Netflix Original Series Trollhunters. A frequent collaborator with Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL, Maxwell wrote music for Sonic the Hedgehog, Terminator Dark Fate, James Cameron’s Alita Battle Angel, and Peter Jackson’s Mortal Engines.
He’s had over 150+ top tier music placements on streaming, cable, and advertising briefs for studios such as Disney, Lucasfilm, ABC, Fox, NBC, Discovery, Nat Geo, and History Channel. He has written music for and worked closely with composers Christophe Beck, Mark Isham, Nick Urata, Brandon Roberts, Heitor Pereira, and Tim Davies, as well as Hans Zimmer’s music production company Bleeding Fingers. He’s a voting member of the Recording Academy for The Grammy Awards.
An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Maxwell enjoyed his Los Angeles Disney Hall solo violin debut at the age of 20. His solo and orchestral playing can be heard on TV and Film projects such as Avatar: The Way of Water, Three Thousand Years of Longing, DC’s Black Adam, Shazam 2, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, Disney’s The Lion King, Frozen 1 & 2, Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars The Mandalorian, Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Pixar’s Turning Red, Birds of Prey, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Fox’s Empire, and The Academy Awards, among countless others. He recently performed with John Legend at the 2022 Emmy Awards.
Thank you to the following organizations
for their support of Global Hatikvah.
Global Hatikvah is an initiative of the American Friends of the Israel Phiharmonic, an exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
