Naftali Herz Imber | |
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| Born | Naftali Herz Imber 27 December 1856 |
| Died | 8 October 1909 (aged 52) |
| Resting place | Givat Shaul Cemetery, Jerusalem, Israel 31°47′53.28″N35°10′39.82″E / 31.7981333°N 35.1777278°E |
| Known for | Hatikvah (The Hope) |
Naftali Herz Imber (Hebrew : נפתלי הרץ אימבר, Yiddish : נפתלי הערץ אימבער; December 27, 1856 – October 8, 1909) was a Jewish Hebrew-language poet, most notable for writing "Hatikvah", the poem that became the basis for the Israeli national anthem.
Naftali Herz Imber was born in Złoczów (now Zolochiv, Ukraine), a city in Galicia, which then was part of the Austrian Empire. [1] His parents were Joshua Heschel Schorr and Hodel Imber, who followed a strictly Orthodox lifestyle. [2] He began writing poetry at the age of 10 and several years later received an award from Emperor Franz Joseph for a poem on the centenary of Bukovina's joining to the Austrian Empire. [3] His brother, Shmaryahu Imber, also became a writer and a local teacher, and his son, Naftali's nephew Shmuel Yankev, became a Yiddish language poet. In his youth Naftali Herz Imber traveled through Hungary, Serbia, and Romania.
In 1882 Imber moved to Ottoman Palestine as a secretary of Sir Laurence Oliphant. He lived with Oliphant and his wife Alice in their homes in Haifa and Daliyat al-Karmel. [4] Oliphant sent him to Beirut to learn the art of watchmaking. Upon his return he helped Imber open a shop in Haifa. In 1884, he moved to Jerusalem, where he wrote poems suffused with elation and hope. In 1889, after quarreling with Oliphant, Imber departed for England. From there he traveled to Paris, Berlin and Bombay. In 1892, he headed for the United States, traveling from one city to another. [2]
In Chicago he met a Protestant physician, Amanda Katie, who converted to Judaism and married him. Israel Zangwill described her as "a Christian crank." The brief marriage ended in divorce. [5] The eminent Jewish judge, Mayer Sulzberger, became his benefactor, providing him with a monthly allowance that allowed him to survive. [2]
In 1882, he published his first book of poems, Morning Star (ברקאיBarkai), in Jerusalem. [6] One of the book's poems was Tikvateinu ("Our Hope"); its very first version was written already in 1877 in Iaşi, Romania. This poem soon became the lyrics of the Zionist anthem and later the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah.
Imber has been described as the "first Hebrew beatnik." [7] He made a mockery of the serious and had a sardonic vulgar wit. [8] Apart from writing his own poems, Imber also translated Omar Khayyam into Hebrew. [9] Additionally, he published Treasures of Two Worlds: Unpublished Legends and Traditions of the Jewish Nation (1910), which posited that the Tabernacle carried by the Hebrews during their 40 years in the desert contained an electrical generator, and that King Solomon invented the telephone. [10]
Imber died penniless in New York City on October 8, 1909 from the effects of chronic alcoholism, nonetheless beloved by the local Jewish community. [5] He had made prior arrangement for his burial by selling a poem, but with his immediate family living in Europe and unavailable to make his funeral arrangements, there was controversy about the cemetery in which he was to be buried. [11] He was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens, [12] In 1953, he was re-interred at Har HaMenuchot, in Jerusalem.
Hatikvah is the national anthem of the State of Israel. Part of 19th-century Jewish poetry, the theme of the Romantic composition reflects the 2,000-year-old desire of the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel in order to reclaim it as a free and sovereign nation-state. The piece's lyrics are adapted from a work by Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish poet from Złoczów, Austrian Galicia. Imber wrote the first version of the poem in 1877, when he was hosted by a Jewish scholar in Iași.
This is a partial timeline of Zionism in the modern era, since the start of the 16th century.
Rishon LeZion is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain eight kilometres (5 mi) south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area.
Hayim Nahman Bialik was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to a new spirit of his time, and recognized today as Israel's national poet. Being a noted essayist and story-teller, Bialik also translated major works from European languages.
Laurence Oliphant, a Member of Parliament, was a South African-born British author, traveller, diplomat, British intelligence agent, Christian mystic, and Christian Zionist. His best known book in his lifetime was a satirical novel, Piccadilly (1870). More heed has gone since to his plan for Jewish farming communities in the Holy Land, The Land of Gilead. Oliphant was a UK Member of Parliament for Stirling Burghs.
Herz is a German surname meaning heart. Notable people with the surname include:
Uri Zvi Greenberg was an acclaimed Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew.
Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai was a Bible scholar, author, and linguist instrumental in the revival of the Hebrew language as a modern, spoken language. Tur-Sinai was the first president of the Academy of the Hebrew Language and founder of its Historical Dictionary Project.
Naphtali Hirz (Hartwig) Wessely was a German-Jewish Hebraist and educationist.
"La Mantovana" or "Il Ballo di Mantova" is a popular sixteenth-century song attributed to the Italian tenor Giuseppe Cenci, also known as Giuseppino del Biado, to the text Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi da questo cielo. Its earliest known appearance in print is in Biado's collection of madrigals of the year 1600. The melody, later also known as "Ballo di Mantova and "Aria di Mantova", gained a wide popularity in Renaissance Europe, being recorded variously as the Flemish "Ik zag Cecilia komen", the Polish "Pod Krakowem", the Romanian "Carul cu boi", the Scottish "My mistress is prettie", and the Ukrainian "Kateryna Kucheryava". It is best known as the melody of Bedřich Smetana's Vltava and of the Israeli national anthem "Hatikvah".
Modern Hebrew poetry is poetry written in the Hebrew language. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto is considered one of the earliest modern Hebrew poets.
Mount Zion Cemetery is a large Jewish cemetery located in Maspeth, Queens, New York City. The first burial was in 1893, and as of 2015, more than 210,000 individuals had been buried there. It is noted for its memorial to those who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
Simon Frug was a multi-lingual Russian and Yiddish poet, lyricist and author.
Naphtali is the sixth son of Jacob in the Bible and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali.
Shmuel Cohen (1870–1940) composed the music for the Israeli national anthem, the "Hatikvah" - "The Hope".
Shmuel Yankev Imber was a Jewish poet and publicist writing in Polish and Yiddish languages. He was regarded as one of the originators and trailblazers of Yiddish poetry in Galicia, who popularized it in big intellectual centers, and one of the first neo-romantics of Yiddish poetry.
Imber is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Yehuda Karni (Wolowski) was a Hebrew poet, journalist, editor, and translator. He was a recipient of the Bialik Prize in 1944. His poems about Jerusalem made a unique contribution to modern Hebrew poetry.
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