Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem CECIL BLOOM It is one of the ironies of Jewish history that the poem which when set to music became the Marseillaise of the Zionist movement,1 and then the national anthem of a sovereign state, came from the pen of a youth who ended up a seedy, dissolute, drunken and pitiable bohemian - he was called the King of Jewish Bohemia in America2 - who died in straitened circumstances. The enfant terrible of the Jewish Lower East Side of New York, he was larger than life and was seen as a comic character to be humoured and tolerated. All the evidence points to his being, at least in his later years, a somewhat distasteful person; but, with further irony, numerous New York organizations vied for the honour of burying him and great men sang their praises over his grave. Yet today, few recall his name. Naphtali Herz Imber, the author of Hatikvah, was born in Zloczow in Galicia in 1855, eldest child of Samuel Imber, a poor and stricdy Orthodox Jew, and his wife Hudil.3 Of this we are certain. But the problem facing the biographer is that many of the stories about him border on the absurd. A recent book which contains many of Imber's writings in English4 does add to our knowledge, but it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. The part-autobiography included in that volume is far from reliable.5 His admiring brother Shmarayahu, too, wrote a generous biogra? phy.6 Imber's obituary in The Times of London7 tells us that as an infant he was deaf, dumb and paralysed and was seven years old before he recovered his faculties. The birth of his sister, when he was three, shocked him greatly because he realized he would have to share his beloved mother with her, and it is reported that he refused to speak to her until his eighteenth birthday.8 But perhaps the silence lasted only until he gained his speech! Many of the tales suggest Imber could have laid claim to be the Jewish Baron M?nchhausen! That he showed early signs of promise does appear to be accurate. He received litde secular education, but he was a talmudic student by the age of ten, regarded in his local community as an ilui, an infant prodigy, who studied the Zohar (the classic of Jewish mysticism). At this age he had even written a poem on the Austro Prussian war; and two years later he dedicated an epic poem entitied Austria, commemorating the centenary of the annexation of Bukovina by Austria, to Emperor Franz Joseph who, according to Imber,9 gave him 50 gulden for the * Paper presented to the Society on 30 April 1992. 3i7</page><page sequence="2">Cecil Bloom poem, plus a personal audience. His contact with royalty did not stop there. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, he wrote to the Mikado of Japan, Emperor Mitsuhito, dedicating to him his third Barkai volume of poetry, in which he poured out his wrath at events in Russia. He also translated a poem by the Emperor into Hebrew.10 Imber claimed he spoke eleven languages,11 but whether Japanese was one of them is not on record. Two Haskalah leaders, Heschel Schorr12 and Abraham Krochmal,13 encouraged him towards a literary career, but he developed a wanderlust, travelling through Hungary, Serbia and Romania. In 1877 he was tutoring the family of a Baron Waldberg in Jassy in Romania.14 It is generally accepted that Imber was inspired by the foundation in 1878 of the village of Petah Tikvah (the Gateway of Hope) by Hovevei Zion pioneers of the First Aliyah to compose his poem Hatikuah ('The Hope') and which was originally entided Tikvatenu ('Our Hope') while living in the Waldberg home.15 Some writers, however, have claimed he wrote it five or six years later. I shall return to this important issue later, but what is absolutely clear is that Norman Bentwich in his paper on Anglo-Jewish travellers to Palestine is quite incorrect in stating Imber wrote it in England.16 It is curious, though, that Imber's autobiographical writings make little reference to the circumstances lead? ing to the writing of Hatikvah. It was unlike the man not to boast of his main achievement, although three years before his death he did write that 'credit is due to [the Oliphants] that the Zionists have a national anthem'.3 It is perhaps appropriate at this point to remark that Imber had nothing to do with the Hatikvah melody. The end of the Russo-Turkish war found him in Constantinople, where he worked for a time as a pedlar;17 and here in 1882 he met the colourful and eccentric Englishman, Laurence Oliphant.18 Oliphant was on his way to Palestine with his wife Alice, and Imber joined them as secretary and interpreter. Oliphant was one of a number of noteworthy philo-Semitic Gentiles who espoused Zionism in its early-modern phase, and believed he had a mission to lead the Chosen People back to the Promised Land. He projected a large Jewish settlement in Gilead, but failed to obtain the Sultan's consent.19 The Oliphants took Imber to live with them on Mount Carmel, and the two men studied kabbalah together.16 Imber soon developed a passion for Alice Oliphant who, twenty years her husband's junior, was considered one of the most fascinat? ing women of her time. He became her 'attached and devoted slave and friend', thinking 'day and night'20 of this woman's 'undefinable spiritual sweetness that magnetized every man that came within the circle of her spell'. She was respon? sible for 'everything evil or unclean in me withering away before the clear fire of her glance'.21 Yet Alice, who called him by the diminutive 'Herzel',22 did not apparentiy return his admiration, and he suddenly left the Oliphant home for Jerusalem whence the Oliphants hurried to persuade him, unsuccessfully, to return with them.23 Toeman's claim24 that his (unpublished) research suggests 318</page><page sequence="3">Hatikvah ? Imber, his poem and a national anthem Imber remained with the Oliphants in Haifa until Alice's death is contrary to the available evidence. Imber did, however, write that he once ran away 'to see the pyramids', where he was stricken with 'Egyptian blindness' and returned to the Oliphants after receiving a letter from Alice which said 'out of Egypt I recall my J 17 son. Imber's reasons for leaving the Oliphants remain obscure. In a letter to his mother, he wrote that it was for a trivial reason.25 He did once offer an explanation to Israel Zangwill, claiming to have been outraged that Oliphant wanted him to do some work of a Christian nature.26 But this explanation is unacceptable because Oliphant had abandoned Christianity many years before, as Imber well knew.27 He is reported to have told the Oliphants when they came to Jerusalem to take him back: 'It is better that I suffer starvation in Jerusalem than luxuriate with you',23 and there has been speculation to what extent his passion for Alice was a factor in his decision to leave their household. The Oliphants' views on life were, to say the least, a trifle unorthodox, practising a particular brand of spirituality they called 'Sympneumata'. Their household was a strange one and serious allegations have been levelled at the (separate) sexual lives of man and wife. This is not the place to discuss the Oliphant philosophy, but it is worth recording one observer's com? ments: 'Very remarkable things are reported to have gone on at that community and finally it had to be closed down at the instance of the Vigilance Association of London which threatened a complete exposure if it continued.'28 The Oliphant creed was such that it was alleged that Alice would give herself to Druzes and Arabs for the sake of their spiritual redemption,29 but she was apparendy denied to Imber who yearned for her. A recent biographer of Laurence Oliphant, however, denies these accusations of sexual impropriety.30 Whatever his true relationship with the Oliphants, Imber was deeply saddened when Alice died of malarial fever in Haifa in 1886, eulogizing her in one of his most striking poems, 'Lament': Deep in the depths of my heart Will your splendoured spirit abide, And my soul in the darkestmost part Is the tomb of your flesh that has died.31 Even three years after her death he was writing: 'It is now nearly three years since she passed away into the world of peace, but in my heart she still lives, and I still feel her gende influence over my soul.'20 He was present also at Oliphant's funeral in London in 1888,32 and wrote appreciations of him in the London Jewish Standard and the Jerusalem Havatselet.33 Interestingly, there is only passing reference to 'the Hebrew' in an authoritative biography of the Oliphants,34 although Imber's time with them is well recorded. Alice, who, Imber wrote, once changed her name to Lilith(!),22 is quoted as saying: 'The Hebrew must learn English to fit on some other work Laurence will want for 319</page><page sequence="4">Cecil Bloom him later.'35 But there is an important reference to Imber in Taylor's more recent biography of Oliphant. A letter from Alice to a friend indicates that Imber had a key role in Oliphant's plan in helping to regenerate the Jews. 'Our beloved ones of the inner world', she explained, had already contrived a change in Imber. 'He travels as Laurence's Hebrew secretary to the outward world, but we are gradually educating [him] in the ways of life of Lily's children. It is wonderfull to see the professional conceits ... and superficial clumsiness and ignorance of social life falling away from him and all kinds of unsuspected sweetness and docility and deep moral strength springing up in the atmosphere in which we hold him.'36 Imber was apparendy suspected of having connections with missionaries in Jerusalem, since when he went to England in 1887 Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the creator of Modern Hebrew, warned Anglo-Jewry against him.37 This charge was to follow him around. He was at this time active in journalistic circles, contributing to two journals - Hazabi which was edited by Ben-Yehuda, and Havatselet38 - and is credited with being the first to call the new settlers Halutzim.39 He published his first book of poetry, Barkai ('Morning Star'), in Jerusalem in 1886, dedicating it to Oliphant. As well as his Balkan poems, it contained Zionist ones, including Tikvatenu and Mishmar Hayarden ('Watch on the Jordan'), which some critics consider to be his finest work. It was, in fact, preferred by many settlers to Hatikvah, which it threatened to replace as the Zionist anthem,40 as it was seen as having a strongly prophetic yet more realistic note. Himmalet Haharah ('Escape to the Hills') was another poem that had its admirers. In all, Imber published three volumes of poetry. There has been much confusion about Imber's movements in Palestine both during and after his stay with the Oliphants, and it is essential to fix these with some accuracy in order to clarify both the date at which he wrote Hatikvah and the origin of the poem's melody. Argument has centred on whether Hatikvah was composed in the Waldberg home in Jassy or during the period 1883-4. Bein41 is in favour of 1877 as the year in which the poem was first written. The Barkai collection published in Jerusalem in 1886 states that they were produced in 1883 4. Imber, however, sent Theodor Herzl a letter in December 1901 (which he knew Herzl would not receive until early in 1902) in which he wrote: 'It is now 25 years since I wrote this song'; and Bein bases his choice of 1877 on this. Yet the explanation is a little too facile, since Petah Tikvah was not established until 1878, and it is unlikely that a poem with such sentiments would have been written before that event. Furthermore, it is not safe to assume that Imber was mathematically precise in his letter to Herzl. As Bein comments, however, Imber was wont to amend his compositions, and his first version, entitled, as has been noted, Tikvatenu, was possibly altered before it was published in the Barkai volume. The 1883-4 date, therefore, could refer to the final version as published in 1886. The Encyclopaedia Hebraica entry on Imber attempts to summarize the issue of dates.42 This article points out that Imber himself had written in a New York newspaper 320</page><page sequence="5">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem (which I have been unable to trace) that Hatikvah was composed in Jassy in 1878. But Imber's testimony has been challenged by members of the Bilu movement, who claim positive links between the final stanza of Imber's poem and an article by Perez Smolenskin written in 1884. However, Imber spent some time in Jerusalem where he continued his literary work, and witnesses relate that the walls of his room were covered with pencil scribblings as ideas flashed into his mind.43 Imber wrote23 that he was ill in Jerusalem, and Laurence Oliphant sent him to Rishon-le-Zion to recuperate for three months in the home of one of the farmers there; and this is confirmed by entries in the diary of a pioneer settler called Mordecai Fryman. I have been privileged to see some of the entries from this diary, and the one for Sivan 5643 (the first day of Sivan was 6 June 1883) reads: 'A youth Mr Naphtali Herz Imber from Galicia stayed here for a few months and he is supported by one of the righteous Gentiles, a lover of Israel, the well-known Lord Lorenzo Oliphant. Here Imber composed his book of songs by the name of Barkai containing the songs Hatikvah, The Shofar, The Watch on the Jordan and others.'44 The diary entries are believed to be reliable, as they were written close to the time of the events recorded by Fryman, who was a leading figure in the village. Furthermore, it has apparendy been common knowledge in Rishon that Imber lived in the home of the Heisman family, in a building still standing in Founders' Square.45 Further confirmation of Imber's stay in Rishon-le-Zion comes from a history of the settlement published in 1951 and edited by David Yudelovich, who was a member of the settlement from its early days. Yudelovich writes: The song 'Hatikvah' was written by a youth in Rishon-le-Zion who lived here for a certain time in the days of the foundation of the settlement in 5643-4 and onwards. The youth's name was Naphtali Herz Imber. A few writers have begun in recent years to express doubts. One of these writers is the brother of the poet and they claim that the poem was not written here. I have been living in this place since then for 59 years from the days of 5642, and I knew the above writer at the time he wrote the poem. We also read it and, with the agreement of Imber, we made corrections both in the style of its language and its content. In conjunction with Israel Balkind, Mordecai Lubman and David, your servant, [i.e. Yudelovich, the author of this account] and with the agreement of Imber, we are recording the matter here for posterity and whoever wants to doubt this, may God be with him.46 Yudelovich then gives examples of how they changed some of Imber's words. I believe that there is nothing in these two accounts which excludes the possibility that 1878 was the original date of composition of Imber's poem, and I conclude that Imber merely put some finishing touches to the poem while at Rishon. Incidentally, it is worth recording that Ben-Yehuda later claimed23 that Imber fomented quarrels between farmers and officials while living in Rishon. After recuperating there, Oliphant sent Imber to Beirut to learn watchmaking. He returned to Haifa and opened a shop which Oliphant stipulated should be closed on the Sabbath.23 321</page><page sequence="6">Cecil Bloom After Palestine, Imber travelled to Bombay (where he was wooed by mission? aries),47 to Paris and to Berlin before settling down in England. He later met Israel Zangwill, soon to become the leading Jewish literary figure of the day, and whose attitude to Imber was unquestionably ambivalent. He befriended him, helped him find work on the London Jewish Standard, took Hebrew lessons from him and gave him English ones in return. Zangwill completed his masterpiece Children of the Ghetto in 1892, and one of the novel's most unforgettable characters, Mel chitzedek Pinchas, the neo-Hebrew poet, is clearly a portrait of Imber, and an unflattering one. Pinchas was a comic personality, who saw Virgil as a plagiarizer of the Talmud, a 'know-all' and a schnorrer of not-too-moral character. Zangwill compares Pinchas to a wandering Minnesinger repaying hospitality with gossip and good stories 48 He never publicly admitted that Imber was the model for Pinchas, but his physical description seems a good fit. During Imber's lifetime this reticence may have been due to the fear of libel action, because Imber tried to sue the American Israelite for $5000 for suggesting that he was a conversionist.49 In the novel, the Jewish community believed Pinchas was writing propaganda pamphlets for the missionaries to the Jews, because such literature was appearing in London written in impeccable Hebrew. Zangwill refused a request by Leo Wise of the American Israelite to identify Imber with Pinchas, and remarked: 'The alleged relation of Imber (a journalist of whom I know nothing definite) to my Pinchas does not appear to bear at all on the matter. A novelist never reproduces life photographi? cally.'49 Even after Imber's death, however, he would not admit the connection, yet did return to Pinchas in his story The Yiddish Hamlet, one of his 1907 Ghetto Comedies, where Pinchas is a playwright transported across the Adantic. That Zangwill indeed modelled Pinchas on Imber seems, however, to be proven by some letters now housed in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. They are from Imber to Zangwill, cover a variety of topics and are written in appalling English and dreadful handwriting; and with them is a note in Mrs ZangwilPs hand commenting that Imber was the original of Pinchas.50 One further puzzle is that, in the text of Children of the Ghetto, Zangwill seems to go out of his way to dissociate Pinchas from Imber. At one point Joseph Strelitski refers to 'our great national poet of Israel, Naphtali Herz Imber', and stridendy recites Mishmar Hayarden in English. Following this, Pinchas was 'pungendy merry over Imber's pretensions to be the National Poet of Israel', declaring contempt for Imber.51 In his correspondence with Zangwill, Imber shows distaste for some leading Anglo-Jewish figures - Haham Moses Gaster,52 Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler53 and Samuel Montagu (the Liberal MP for Whitechapel)54 - just as Pinchas is severely critical of some establishment personalities. In Children of the Ghetto the MP Gideon is an enemy of Pinchas, and Gideon was modelled on Montagu. While in England, Imber lived in Brighton and London, and published a series of articles in the Jewish Standard which were later issued in book form as Topics of 322</page><page sequence="7">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem today in the Talmud.55 Imber once told Montagu he felt he was suitable for the vacant post of Maggid in the East End of London,56 a position under Montagu's patronage; but understandably Montagu did not see Imber in the role of a religious preacher. Zangwill does, however, have some good things to say of Pinchas. Raphael Leon, the hero of the novel, says that the poet is 'A real neglected genius. Now there's the man to bear in mind when one speaks of Jews and poetry!' Zangwill was certainly mendacious in implying he knew nothing definite about Imber. By the time he wrote to Leo Wise he had known Imber for more than five years and had corresponded with him on a not infrequent basis. No letters of ZangwilPs to Imber are extant, but Imber's letters, which suggest some degree of intimacy between them, make it clear that Zangwill had indeed written to him. Zangwill was probably the one person in England with most knowledge of the poet. Given Imber's lack of social graces and the reputation he brought with him from Palestine, ZangwilPs association with him is a littie strange, and may primarily have been motivated by the desire to use him in his fiction. Apart from Pinchas, the unpleasant German Professor Pont in The Mantle of Elijah has some of Imber's attributes. Zangwill did not break his relationship with Imber when the latter left England; Imber used to call on him when Zangwill was in New York. Imber was always sensitive to being identified with Pinchas. Sometimes he seemed proud of the association, occasionally even calling himself Pinchas,57 but he once physically assaulted an actor in a New York stage production of ZangwilPs story who played the part in what for him was a too-Imberlike manner.58 He did, however, once say that he could not have been Pinchas because of Pinchas' reference to him in the novel.59 In his Jewish Chronicle obituary notice on Imber, Zangwill tantalizingly predicted that future biographers would find Imber's life to be divided into two phases, the boundary being marked by the cutting of his hair. Wild in London, it was well regarded in New York.'1 Zangwill likened Imber to the dissolute but great 15th-century French poet, Francois Villon, with whom he shared certain attributes. Imber, in fact, copied Villon in leaving a mocking will. Zangwill questioned Imber's passion for Zion, which he believed was purely literary, and noted in his diary that Imber was a 'scoundrel, a fraud, thoroughly link and immoral'.60 To Zangwill he was 'the graceless author of Hatikvah'.61 Imber left London for the New World in 1892, where he lived until his death in 1909; but from the United States we have a more accurate portrait of him because a number of his contemporaries refer to him in their books. The most charitable term by which to describe Imber's lifestyle in America is 'unconventional', and he appears to have been loved and hated with equal vigour. Hutchins Hapgood met Imber in 1901 while gathering material for his classic The Spirit of the Ghetto, and left a fascinating account in a chapter entided Odd Characters.61 'Imber is a peculiar character who was often found at a Russian-Jewish cafe on Canal Street on the Lower East Side.' He found 'the dignified Hebrew poet has, as a man, many of the humorous and less impressive peculiarities of ZangwilPs Pinchas and it is difficult 323</page><page sequence="8">Cecil Bloom to take him seriously'. Imber boasted that he was the founder of the Zionist movement, but, with unusual modesty, was quite happy for others to take over his work and reap the glory. Curiously, Hapgood makes no mention of Hatikvah, but quotes extensively from Mishmar Hayarden. His book is graced by many drawings from life by the young Jacob Epstein, and one shows Imber as a neat, reasonably dressed man, different from the descriptions given by Zangwill and others. But in a later work, published long after Imber's death, Hapgood is less inhibited (had he, too, been wary of libel action?). He wrote then that Imber had been 'an amusing clown', heavily preoccupied with whisky. 'Imber had a most sardonic appearance; in fact, he looked like a caricature of Voltaire and, I think, made up his looks to resemble the Frenchman.'63 Julius Haber, a Zionist fundraiser, was aware of Imber's shortcomings but was genuinely fond of him, believing him to have considerable poetic talent. In The Odyssey of an American Zionist he wrote of Imber's shabby years, when he patheti? cally tried to 'maintain his own private legend of himself as a dashing, devil-may care fellow whose ship might come in any day'.64 But Imber was impulsive, headstrong, impractical and improvident and it would never happen. Haber was one of the few to have a great regard for his poetry, and did not think Imber's reputation as a hard, vain, completely egocentric man, totally self-absorbed and unconcerned with human values, was justified, because no man with the inner qualities revealed through his poetry and possessed by a transcendental spirituality could be described in this manner. 'There was a quality in him that lifted him above his all-too-human flaws.' He tells a moving story of Imber acting unbe? known to a poor, pious woman with six children as a shabbos goy, lighting her fire on a cold Sabbath morning.65 He left his last pennies on the table, for, 'in his wretched poverty, he had remembered that someone else's need can be more desperate than his own'. Haber spoils the story, however, by commenting that Imber was amused at the thought of acting as a shabbos goy, suggesting he may not have been altogether altruistic in his actions. Philip Cowen, editor of the American Hebrew, first met Imber when he presented him with his card: 'Naphtali Herz Imber, the National Hebrew Poet'. In his book, Memoirs of an American Jew, he wrote that he regarded Imber as a clever writer and a vagabond genius whom he liked, but he accepted that it was difficult to 'separate Imber from his bottle, much to the chagrin of his friends'.66 He could always be found in one or other of his favourite taverns. Imber sponged off Judge Mayer Sulzberger of Philadelphia, a man with a love of Jewish learning, a founder of the Jewish Publication Society and Chairman of its Publication Committee, one of whose objectives was to help struggling writers to establish themselves. Word spread around the immigrant community that an endorsement from Sulzberger was an assurance of publication,67 and Imber led the throng to the kindly judge's door. It was Sulzberger who had encouraged Zangwill to write Children of the Ghetto,68 and one assumes the latter recommended Imber to Sulzberger, who 324</page><page sequence="9">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem arranged work for Imber on the Philadelphia Jot/sA Exponent soon after he reached America. Sulzberger became Imber's understanding and long-suffering patron, and Imber became Sulzberger's schnorr er and nuchschlepper. Sulzberger had sym? pathetic insight into, and perhaps pity for, Imber's fading talent, and he gave him a pension towards the end, but even then he had to take steps to see the money was not squandered. Imber was made to collect portions of it daily from the equally alcoholic head of the Jewish section of the New York Public Library, Abraham Freidus. Freidus was another bohemian, but Sulzberger chose him, as the most honest man he knew, to look after the poet's money.69 Freidus used to give Imber $i at a time, which he placed between the pages of a certain book in the library. Imber does not appear to have shown much gratitude to Sulzberger; on one occasion he complained that Sulzberger 'may send me cheques but he will not attend to me when I'm ill'.70 The Zionist leader, Louis Lipsky, in A Gallery of Zionist Profiles, presents a cruel and venomous sketch.71 He refers to Imber's habit of telling tall stories about himself, particularly of his amorous adventures, to anyone prepared to listen. They first met in 1901, and Lipsky thought Imber an obnoxious, most unattractive man with grotesque behaviour, who certainly fitted Zangwill's description of Pinchas. He was downright dirty, always smelling of stale whisky. Lipsky rejected Imber's claim to be a poet and, like Zangwill, was not convinced he was a lover of Zion or had much interest in Palestine. But despite this, he was apparendy happy to include Imber in his Gallery in the company of Zionist leaders from Herzl to Ben Gurion. The writing of Hatikvah must have merited his inclusion, even if it was 'the Jewish people who gave the words and the music life and meaning'. Others also described Imber in derogatory terms. The Cincinnati Times-Star referred to the 'queer little man with dark skin, coal black hair long thick and curly, dark brown eyes' in reporting his presence in the city.72 The community leader, Rebekah Kohut, in As I know them, like Zangwill, compared Imber to Villon, and called him the latter's spiritual descendant; but unlike Lipsky she had compassion for the man while recognizing his faults.73 He was, she wrote, 'a real poet' - a schnorrer it is true - but 'brilliant, fascinating, facile, keen, a great actor - a personality'. His literary genius 'expressed the soul of his people'. Morris Wald man, a social and charity worker, gives us a crisp vignette in his Nor By Power. 'I could not but marvel at the grotesque twist of nature that deformed one of the greatest Jewish poetic geniuses of his generation into so pitiful a human wreck.'74 Waldman had a high regard for Imber's lyricism, likening him to the Greek poets and equating him with Heine. In the early 1890s Imber spent some time in the mid-West city of Indianapolis,75 where he was involved with theosophist groups; and there he published The Keynote to Mystic Science and The Fall of Jerusalem.76 In 1893 he was in Boston writing articles for a number of journals. He became editor of Uriel, a magazine devoted to kabbalistic science, which survived two issues only.77 Two years later 325</page><page sequence="10">Cecil Bloom his tracts, Letters of Rabbi Akiba or the Jewish Primer as it was used in the public schools 2000 years ago, and Education and the Talmud, were written for and published by the US Government, who paid him $250.78 Both were full of nonsense, and it would be interesting to know what motivated the US authorities to lavish money on him in this way. These publications went to his head, for thereafter he gave himself the tide of 'Professor',79 to add to his other self-bestowed epithet of Baal Hatikvah ('Master of Hope').80 Following the failure of Uriel he went West, and in March 1896 he arrived in San Francisco.81 He lectured on kabbalah at the Temple Emanu-El, suggesting he had now acquired some status. In 1899 ne was m San Jose,82 where more works were published; and in Los Angeles he published some works dealing with Jewish folklore and legend.82 He visited New Mexico and Arizona,83 and then returned East through Chicago where, in 1900, he met and married 'the handsomest woman in the US',76 Amanda Katie Davidson, a Christian crank, according to Zangwill,1 who was said to have converted to Judaism to marry him. Amanda Katie was as eccentric as her spouse and the marriage broke up within the year, but not before they had toured remote parts of the country to give joint lectures on the occult. Following these lectures he assumed another tide: 'Mahatma, a Hindu Philosopher'.84 The dissolution of his marriage did not prevent him from later dedicating the poem Song of Songs, in his second Barkai volume, to Amanda Katie. The poem almost pornographically describes her physical attributes.85 And then in 1904 he became co-editor of the ill-fated Filadelfia Yiddishe Presse, to which he contributed a poem to its single issue.86 He returned to New York City soon after, where he became a familiar figure; but he also spent time in three Jewish agri? cultural settlements in New Jersey - Woodbine, Rosenhayn and Carmel.87 Imber wrote too on musical subjects and contributed a number of articles on Jewish music, both ancient and modern.88 In one article, 'Music and the Dance', he referred to Hassidism as the 'Jewish Salvation Army'.89 Peter Gradenwitz, in his masterly The Music of Israel, lists some of Imber's articles90 which suggests that the eminent musicologist considered these to merit some attention. In another article, 'Who was crucified?', he argued it was not Jesus.91 There were few subjects on which he did not claim expertise - he wrote on science and medicine, econ? omics, mysticism and history, to give a few examples. He said he was a talmudic scholar, but apart from his studies when he was ten years old there is no record of his having attended Yeshivah. He did have a reputation, however, for an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Talmud and was adept at finding references in it to modern phenomena such as bicycles, microscopes, cures for tuberculosis and structures like the Eiffel Tower.58 When he left London the Jewish Standard commented: 'It is impossible to invent or discover anything which Mr Imber is not prepared to discover or invent in the Talmud.'92 He promised to write a seven volume work entitled The Battles of Jehovah, which was to open a new era in biblical research,82 but the world was spared this. 326</page><page sequence="11">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem In his last years, his reputation as a hard drinker grew, and he became a figure of fun. He was always ready to attend Zionist conventions, which he used to insist on addressing,93 and he was treated with some degree of tolerance. He would climb on to the stage at the close of Zionist meetings to 'conduct' the singing of his anthem.92 In ill-health for some years, thanks to his life-style, he deteriorated rapidly and his appearance became pathetic, his face was deeply lined, his hair unkempt and filthy and his clothing torn.94 His last home was a garret, and every evening he earned his whisky by reciting his poems in cafes. His notoriety as a drinker competed with whatever reputation he retained as a literary man. He made no secret of his sorry plight and often expressed bitterness at his lot. He made some attempts to be active on the international Zionist stage, although he was never present at a Zionist Congress. He wrote to Theodor Herzl at the 1901 Basle Congress that: 'I am a delegate at large and my credential is Hatikvah ... and, although the Zionists treated me ill, I am still a Zionist and am happy to see my dreams realized.'95 He once asked Herzl for $1000 so that the Zionist organization could have the use of his second Barkai volume of poetry for propaganda purposes.96 In 1905 he cabled the message And lauvodo tikvosenu ('We have not yet lost our hope') to the Seventh Congress.96 On Herzl's death he eulogized him in the Maccabean magazine.97 What was Imber's contribution to Jewish letters? There can be no argument but that most of his work in English is valueless, but there is some agreement that his early poetry showed talent; and a number of discerning critics have commented favourably on this work. To Dov Sadan he played a far from negligible role in the development of Hebrew poetry in the period between Judah Leib Gordon and Bialik.98 His lack of technical skill is mitigated by his wide variety of themes and by his sustained romantic emphasis on national resurgence. Joseph Klausner con? sidered his inspiration to have been a spontaneous love of a people for its ancestral home.99 But if one accepts the views of two who knew him, Zangwill and Lipsky, his Zionist idealism had gone when he left Palestine. His poetic gift, according to Meyer Waxman, was in his ability to attune himself to the dreams of the settiers and in his skill in catching with genuine feeling the rhythm of the words of the folk? song.100 But if he lacked depth and imagination and breadth of vision, his early work had a freshness which made it popular with the settlers. Imber himself considered his contribution to have been the introduction of a pagan spirit into Hebrew poetry, which had for millennia been plagued by lamentations.101 Rabbi Judah Magnes, of the prestigious Temple Emanu-El of New York and the first President of the Hebrew University, may have put his finger on Imber's claim to immortality. In his graveside eulogy he described Imber as a poet not so much because of his poetry as 'by the songs [by which] he would be immortalized by the Jewish people. Imber outdid greater poets than he because his poems expressed in song the joys and hopes of the Jewish people.'102 This was true, however, only for the Palestine poet; once out of Palestine he eventually became a hack journalist, 327</page><page sequence="12">Cecil Bloom writing essays and articles on any subject that would earn him money. This deterioration raises the question of whether something happened during his stay in Palestine that changed his oudook. The Alice Oliphant relationship is an in? triguing one - did it go further than we know; or, more likely, was he shattered at learning of her sexual adventures? The experience must have been a profound one to have reduced such a man to silence. There are, however, some exceptions to this decline. He rendered Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubayait of Omar Khayyam into Hebrew under the tide Ha-Kos ('The Cup'),103 and Israel Davidson, a contemporary of Imber's and a medieval-Hebrew scholar of note, considered Imber's translation to be finer than Fitzgerald's own.74 Imber wrote poetry also in Yiddish; Jacob Kabakoff has located some two dozen of these, written in America.104 At this time he wrote mosdy in English, but there were also occasional Hebrew ones. Kabakoff remarks that the Yiddish poetry has, as its chief motifs, a sense of mourning for Jewish suffering and hope for re-establishment in the Land of Israel.105 This contradicts the view that his Zionism vanished when he left Palestine. That Imber was famous - or notorious - right to the end is illustrated by the New York Times headline on the day of his death: 'The poet of Zion suffers paralysis'.93 It reported that, after discharging himself from hospital where he had been for two weeks, he was found unconscious following a stroke and died the same day, Simchat Torah 5670; this prompted the Kibitzer journal to caption their death notice: 'On Simchat Torah all shikorim are sober'.94 High comedy followed. Serious rivalry arose between a number of organizations over who should bury him and it took three hours of argument before the honour went to the Federation of Galician and Bukovinan Jews.106 One present at the debate was moved to say: 'When Imber was alive he found it hard to get a bed to sleep upon; now he is dead, the Galician Jews fight for the privilege of burying him.'107 He was buried on 10 October 1909, two days after his death, with 10,000 following his bier.102 Two hundred police were needed to keep order, and nearly a score of Zionist bodies were represented. The crowd sang Hatikvah. There was no lack of eminent men to pay tribute to him. Many obituaries appeared. Most agreed that he had some genius. Abraham Cahan, the great Yiddish journalist, evaluated Imber as a misunderstood tragic figure with a poetic soul,108 while the Yiddish Zukunft boldly stated that, although he had backbone, he was a cynic without principles and was better off dead.109 But he was soon forgotten, and an appeal was required to raise money for a tombstone. Even Zangwill in England was inveigled into persuading his friends there to contribute.110 But two years passed before a memorial was erected over his grave. Then, forty-four years after his death, his remains were reinterred beside the Hebrew writer Peretz Smolenskin in Jerusalem, with due pomp and ceremony, and in the presence of Cabinet Ministers and other dignitaries.111 His will and testament, which Hapgood had reproduced in The Spirit of the Ghetto, was 328</page><page sequence="13">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem republished in the New York Times and caused some amusement.112 Based on Villon's it read: 'To the Rabbis I leave what I don't know; it will help them to a longer life. To my enemies I leave my rheumatism. Between the Democratic and Republican Parties, I divide my boodle which they have not yet touched. To the Jewish editors, I leave my broken pen so that they can write slowly and avoid mistakes. My books are intended for beginners - I leave them to the eight pro? fessors so that they can learn to read.' What was Imber's secret? He has been called an 'erratic genius',84 but the word genius cannot refer to his writings. The key must lie in his extraordinary per? sonality, obnoxious though he seems to have been for much of the time, a per? sonality sufficiendy commanding to have attracted the attentions of many men, including Zangwill who gave a rich portrayal. New York City in the Nineties was teeming with intellectuals revelling in their newly-found freedom, but no one could have attracted the attention Imber received without having something spe? cial to offer. Poor Imber! An erratic genius who started life as a lufimensch and finished as a shikker. But he was also the author of some extraordinary verses which captured the hearts of the Jewish people. Judge Sulzberger's words are befitting: 'Long after his detractors shall be forgotten, there will be a small niche in the Halls of Genius for Naphtali Herz Imber.'113 The niche may be a small one, but how right he was. No one can take Hatikvah away from Imber, and his authorship of the hymn now sung by Jews the world over and as Israel's national anthem entities him to a place in Jewish history. Much of the fascination of Hatikvah relates to the puzzle of the tune's origins, and many theories have been elaborated, some with great passion. Israel Abrahams, who has perhaps given the best critique of the song, described its melody as a beautiful one, and easily sung by large masses of people.114 It owes its fame to the directness of its sentiment which, weak in a poem, makes for strength in a song. Unlike some other poems it does not attack those who do not share the poet's feelings. Even President Harry Truman once commented perceptively that the melody seemed to reflect the tragedy of the Jewish people throughout the ages.115 Menachem Begin once wrote that Hatikvah is a simple song and 'became our national anthem because of the heart-warming simplicity of the words'.116 The great Russian bass, Feodor Chaliapin, however, is on record with a contrary view. To him, Hatikvah is a 'made' anthem and he would have preferred it to have had more Jewish feeling and to be characteristic of Jewish life.117 Shmuel Cohen, who lived in Rishon-le-Zion, is now widely recognized as the person responsible for the Hatikvah melody, but musicologists have thoroughly enjoyed themselves on the origin of the melody. A number of melodies, both Jewish and non-Jewish, from various parts of Europe are similar to that of the Hatikvah - at least sixteen different musical items have been suggested as the source of the melody - and much controversy has ensued over which is the correct 329</page><page sequence="14">Cecil Bloom original. Cohen's claims were ignored by many for a long time, but it is now generally accepted that it was he who chose the well-known melody. There was a belief that Shmuel Cohen set Hatikvah to music after hearing Imber recite the poem at Rishon-le-Zion, but this is incorrect. In his memoirs118 Cohen relates that his brother was present when Imber paid a visit to Rosh Pinah and that Imber gave him a copy of his Barkai poems and inscribed it with a very cordial dedication. The brother sent this to Shmuel, still in his native Moldavia. Soon after, when Shmuel emigrated to Rishon-le-Zion in 1888, he noticed that the Barkai poems were not being read and, especially interested in Hatikvah, he set it to the tune of a Romanian song, Carul cu Boi ('Cart and Oxen'), which was used to urge the oxen during ploughing. S me tana's Ma Vltava, a familiar work, includes a melody that is similar to the Hatikvah, and this gave rise to the unfounded belief that Imber borrowed Smetana's melody. Smetana's and the Romanian song may indeed be from the same source, although there is some evidence that Smetana's derives not from a Central European source but from a Swedish song, Ack, Varmeland du Skona, widely known in Sweden but probably of Dutch origin.119 Smetana lived in Sweden for five years. The similarities between Hatikvah and Ma Vltava did, however, result in the latter being banned on the Palestine radio in the Mandate period. When Hatikvah was prohibited, Jewish broadcasters made a point of playing the Smetana work whenever possible.43 The mystery of the tune's origins deepens when we learn that a version of it is present in the Sephardi prayer for Dew and also in the Sephardi melody used for Psalm 117 which is included in the Hallel. This latter was first published in 1857 by Rabbi David de Sola and Emanuel Aguilar in a volume entitled Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews,11? the melodies being at least 200 years old. The Reverend Mayerowitsch, a London hazzan and a musicologist of note, strongly denied any connection with Smetana.121 He was emphatic that the tune was adapted by a Henry Busato or Russotto who 'set himself the task of finding a suitable tune and, as if visualising that it was destined to become the Jewish national anthem' simply 'turned for inspiration to the Sephardi Hallel. Any intelli? gent and attentive listener will find Smetana's melody, though somewhat similar, yet definitely not identical to the Sephardi Hallel', he wrote in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle,111 that sparked off an entertaining correspondence.123 Rabbi de Sola Pool of New York and a grandson of David de Sola pardy supports Mayerowitsch, but he believed Reverend Perlzweig picked up the melody in a London Sephardi synagogue and specifically adapted it to the length of the verse of Hatikvah. 'There is no need for doubt as to the origin of the tune', firmly concluded the New York rabbi.124 Support for the Sephardi origin comes from other important authorities, such as Professor Eric Werner of Tel-Aviv University, who dismisses the 'wide? spread notion that the Hatikvah was borrowed from Smetana'.125 He too sees it simply as an extended version of the Sephardi melodies. There are other theories. The two foremost Jewish musicologists, Abraham 330</page><page sequence="15">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem Idelsohn and Peter Gradenwitz, both offer a number of other options, including Basque folk songs, a pilgrimage song from Valencia, a Polish folk song and even two German nursery songs.126 All these resemble the Hatikvah melody, which is also heard at the beginning of Mahler's Song of a Wayfarer. A Christmas carol, Noel Suisse, scored for organ and composed by Louis Claude Daquin, a French com? poser of Jewish extraction, has the same tune. Daquin, who wrote the piece in about 1740, was a leading composer at the Court of Louis XIV. Since one of his ancestors was an Avignonese rabbi who was later baptized,127 it would be tempting to speculate that Daquin received the melody from his Jewish forebears. The opening bars of a Saint-Saens organ solo, 'Rhapsody on a Breton Folk Song, No. 3', also have the tune, but this may well be a plagiarism of the Daquin composition. A well-known tune for the Yigdal hymn, which is another candidate, was composed in London late in the 18th century, so it is easy to see the connection with the Sephardi melodies. Imber himself apparendy denied responsibility for the music, although his brother wrote that Naphtali brought the tune with him from Romania. The Brooklyn rabbi, Israel Goldfarb, who knew Imber, credits him with the tune, claiming that Imber borrowed it from a cantorial composition of the famous Odessa hazzan Nissan Beizer.128 Goldfarb had examined Belzer's composition in manuscript and found the music to tally note for note with the Hatikvah melody, but he could have been examining one of the Sephardi melodies. Mozart's vari? ation for piano, Ah, vous dirai-je maman, of 1778, the tune of which is known in Britain as Baa, baa, black sheep, also has a glimpse of the Hatikvah melody. It is also present in Tchaikovsky's 'Album for the Young, Op. 39', where it is entitied 'Old French Melody, No. 16'. Tchaikovsky wrote the work in 1878, and probably borrowed the melody from Daquin. So what is the explanation? There is now much support for the view that the melody is a 'wandering' one found in folk traditions throughout Europe,129 all or most of which may have a common origin. List, who has examined the Hatikvah melody in some detail, believes these various melodies reflect the diffusion not of a particular melodic formula but of a style.130 He sees no reason why two quite separate and distinct musicians should not independendy create similar musical structures to the one of which the Hatikvah melody is a member. Is it possible to link the Sephardi tunes with the Basque and Valencia ones and to suggest that the Sephardi tunes are of pre-1492 origin? There is some evidence that the Sephardi tunes are at least 260 years old because there is a similar Moroccan 'romancero' welcoming the great Rabbi Amram Bendiwan to Morocco in 1726, as an emissary from the Holy Land.131 However, there is now no reason to doubt Shmuel Cohen's account, and most contemporary scholars accept that the Romanian folk tune, whatever its source, was the model for the tune of Hatikvah, thus rejecting the Sephardi claim. But it remains extraordinary that the Sephardi tune turns up in the same family as the one Cohen used for Hatikvah. Let the last words on this subject be those of Shmuel Cohen: 331</page><page sequence="16">Cecil Bloom Can I tell you how the song Hatikvah and its well-known melody became the Zionist anthem?... The poet Naphtali Herz Imber was in Rosh Pinah. As a souvenir Imber gave my brother a collection of his poems entitled Barkai with a warm dedication inside and this book was sent to me in the Diaspora by my brother. Of all the songs, I liked best Shir Hatikvah. I was particularly impressed with the final verse Tor the Jewish people our hope is finally come'. A short time later I emigrated to Israel. In my country of birth, we had a choir that used to sing the Rumanian folk song Oise ('Right, Left') - it was with this call that they urged on the oxen yolked to the plough. When I came to Rishon-le-Zion fifty years ago, they were not singing Hatikvah, just as they were not singing any of the other Barkai songs. I was the first one to start singing Hatikvah, using the foreign tune that I knew. This is the song that is now sung throughout the Diaspora. At first, neither the poem nor the melody attracted much attention. We used to sing more popular songs ... It did not occur to us then to make Hatikvah into our national anthem. The song Watch on the Jordan was, at that time, sung as the national anthem. We Zionists, at that time, felt that this song deserved that honour.118 It is, perhaps, worth recording at this point that some twenty years ago a modern apartment house was built in Rishon-le-Zion on the site of Shmuel Cohen's house and, to commemorate Cohen's contribution to the national anthem, the architect integrated the notes of the Hatikvah melody into the ironwork on the front balcony of the building.45 And one further point of interest. Two years before Cohen arrived in Rishon, Leon Igly, a musician from Russia, spent some time there and attempted to set the Hatikvah verses, all nine of them, to music, but each verse to a different tune.43 This composition was too complicated for the Rishon residents and is now lost. The earliest printed version of Hatikvah's words and music appeared in Breslau in 1895 in a collection called Four Songs with Syrian melodies,132 and its first English translation was ZangwilPs. Two competitions were held for a Zionist anthem, one by Herzl's own newspaper Die Welt in 1898 and another at the 4th Zionist Congress in London in 1900, but neither succeeded.133 One of the competitions produced forty-five candidates, of which only one used Hebrew words; among the melodies suggested were an aria from Carmen and the Ma'oz Tzur melody used at Chanukah.43 There is some evidence that three candidates, including Hatikvah, were considered at the London Congress, and that Hatikvah was sung immediately after God Save theQueenl13* Hatikvah was sung again at the 1903 Zionist Congress in Basle, when delegates opposed to the Uganda proposals marched out of the Congress Hall singing Hatikvah lustily,135 but it did have a German rival, Dort wo die Zeder ('There, where the Cedar'). When the 7th Congress of 1905, also in Basle, concluded with a rousing chorus of Hatikvah,136 this set the seal on its standing. But later, in 1932, it was attacked on two fronts.137 Some considered the words to be too old-fashioned or unsuitable for public use, and others that the melody was unoriginal and had a melancholy spirit. The matter was finally settled a year later in Prague when it was officially accepted as the Zionist anthem (together with the blue-and-white flag as the official emblem);138 and its status as 332</page><page sequence="17">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem the national anthem was finally sealed at the ceremony of the Declaration of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708). There are at least forty different musical settings for the anthem. Pride of place goes to the choral setting of the Israeli composer, Paul Ben Haim. Kurt Weill made an orchestrated arrangement, and there is a Variations on a theme of Hatikvah for piano, which runs to thirty-one pages of score. But to most Jews the straight? forward tune, sung to the words which were slighdy modified after the establish? ment of the State, is sufficient to bring tears of joy to their eyes. So long as still within our breasts The Jewish heart beats true, So long as still towards the East To Zion looks the Jew. So long our hopes are not yet lost, Two thousand years we've cherished them - To live in freedom in the land, Of Zion and Jerusalem. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Rachel Gissin, Curator of the Museum of Rishon-le-Zion, for providing me with important documents dealing with Imber's stay in Rishon and with key information relating to Shmuel Cohen. I would also like to express my thanks to Adina Eshel of the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem for her most useful comments, to Dr Batya Bayer of the Department of Music of the Hebrew University for a valuable telephone conversa? tion, to the staff of the National Library of the Hebrew University for their help in allowing me access to many books and documents, and to the Reverend H. Benarroch, Senior Hazan of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in London for his information on the Moroccan 'romancero'. And finally, I would like to acknowledge the help of my daughter, Valerie, and my son, David, who provided me with translations of documents available only in Hebrew. NOTES 1 Jewish Chronicle (hereafter JQ 29 October 1909,7. 2 A. Parry, Garrets and Pretenders (New York 1960)81. 3 N. H. Imber, 'In Memoriam', in Hebrew Standard, 23 February 1906. Republished in J. Kabakoff (ed) Master of Hope (New York, London and Toronto 1985) 92. 4 J. Kabakoff (ed) (see n. 3). 5 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves from my Palestine and other Diaries' (hereafter 'Leaves'), in Jewish Standard 1888-1890. Republished in Kabakoff (see n. 3) 29-73. 6 G. H. Wilk, 'The Bohemian who wrote Hatikvah', Commentary (January 1951) 49-50. 7 The Times, 26 October 1909, n. 8 E. Lithman, The Man who wrote Hatikvah (London 1979) 25. 333</page><page sequence="18">Cecil Bloom 9 N. H. Imber, The Maccabean, December 1909. Quoted inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 83. 10 N. H. Imber, The Third Barkai (New York 1904). Dedicatory preface. 11 A. Taylor, Laurence Oliphant 1829-1888 (Oxford 1982) 213. 12 N. H. Imber, The Maccabean, December 1909, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 82-5. 13 N. H. Imber, The Maccabean, January 1910, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 85-9. 14 E. Silberschlag, 'Naphtali Herz Imber', Judaim, XV (1956) 149. 15 I. Cohen, 'Centenary of Imber', Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, 28 December 1956, 15. 16 N. Bentwich, 'Anglo-Jewish Travellers to Palestine', MiscJHSE IV (1942) 15. 17 G. Yardeni-Agmon, 'The Diaries of Naphtali Herz Imber', in D. Carpi (ed.) Zionism, Studies in the history of the Zionist movement and of the Jews in Palestine I (1975) 266. 18 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves', Chapter 21, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 58. 19 G. Yardeni-Agmon (see n. 17) 271. 20 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves', Chapter 21, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 59. 21 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves', Chapter 25, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 65. 22 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves', Chapter 22, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 59. 23 G. Yardeni-Agmon (see n. 17) 277. 24 E. Toeman, Jewish Quarterly XXV, 2 (92) (Summer 1977) 57. 25 G. Yardeni-Agmon (see n. 17) 277-8. 26 Letter from Imber to Zangwill dated about June 1888. Quoted in Y. Einav, 'Naphtali Herz Imber-Israel Zangwill: A Correspondence', Studies in Zionism IV (October 1981) 194. 27 N. H. Imber, 'Leaves', Chapter 7, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 35. 28 R. Strachey, Group movements of the past and experiments in guidance (London 1934) 220. First published in 1928 by H. W. Smith under the title Religious Fanaticism. 29 R. Strachey (see n. 28) 221. 30 A. Taylor (see n. 11) 234-5. 31 Quoted in G. Yardeni-Agmon (see n. 17) 278. 32 A. Taylor (see n. 11) 247. 33 G. Yardeni-Agmon (see n. 17) 279. 34 M. O. W. Oliphant, Memoir of the life of Laurence Oliphant and of his wife Alice 2 vols (Edinburgh and London 1891). 35 M. O. W. Oliphant II (see n. 34) 234. 36 Letter from Alice Oliphant to Georgiana Mount Temple in A. Taylor (see n. 11) 219. 37 Y- Einav (see n. 26) 195. 38 E. Lithman (see n. 8) 90. 39 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 53. 40 M. Ravina, Hatikvah (Tel Aviv 1968) 70 (in Hebrew). 41 A. Bein, 'The Hatikvah', Zion III 6-7 (1953) 27-8. 42 Encyclopaedia Hebraica II (5710) cols 853-4 (in Hebrew). 43 E. Cohen, 'Naphtali Herz Imber - Hatikvah's 100th year', Et-Mol IV, 2(22) Chesh van 5739 (in Hebrew). 44 Jubilee Book of Rishon-le-Zion (Jerusalem 5667) 15. 45 R. Gissin, private communication to the author. 46 D. Yudelovich (ed) Rishon-le-Zion (Jerusalem 1951) 508. 47 E. Silberschlag (see n. 14) 154. 48 I. Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto (London 1907) 74. 49 Y. Einav (see n. 26) 190. 50 B. Winehouse (now Y. Einav), 'Naphtali Herz (Hertzele) Imber', Jewish Quarterly XXIV, 3(89) (Autumn 1976) 7. The author of this paper has seen the original note in Mrs Zangwill's handwriting in the Central Zionist Archives files in Jerusalem. 51 I. Zangwill (see n. 48) 145-7. 52 Letter from Imber to Zangwill dated about February 1890. Quoted in Y.Einav (see n. 26) 209. 53 Letter from Imber to Zangwill dated about February 1890. Quoted in Y. Einav (see n. 26) 208. 54 Letter from Imber to Zangwill dated early February 1890. Quoted in Y. Einav (see n. 26) 208. 55 J. Kabakoff, 'Naphtali Herz Imber as a Yiddish poet', in M. H. Gelber (ed.) Identity and Ethos (New York 1986) 50. 56 Letter from Imber to Zangwill dated November 1889. Quoted in Y. Einav (see n. 26) 201. 57 I. Cohen (see n. 15) 15. 58 J. Leftwich, Israel Zangwill (London 1957) 66. 59 Letter from Sulzberger to Zangwill 25 November 1900. Quoted in Y. Einav (see n. 26) 191-2. 60 J. Leftwich (see n. 58) 67. 61 M. Simon (ed.) Speeches, articles and letters of Israel Zangwill (London 1937) 143. 62 H. Hapgood, The Spirit of the Ghetto (New York 1966) 275 et seq. 63 H. Hapgood, A Victorian in the modern world (New York 1939) 144. 334</page><page sequence="19">Hatikvah - Imber, his poem and a national anthem 64 J. Haber, The Odyssey of an American Zionist (New York 1956) 83. 65 J. Haber (see n. 64) 84-5. 66 P. Cowen, Memoirs of an American Jew (New York 1932) 119. 67 M. Friedman (ed.) Jewish life in Philadel? phia (Philadelphia 1983) 93. 68 J. Leftwich (see n. 58) 63-4. 69 R. Kohut, As I know them (New York 1929) 192. 70 N. H. Imber, 'briber's Picture Gallery' in The Reform Advocate, 29 February 1908. Republished inj. Kabakoff (see n. f) 133. 71 L. Lipsky,^ Gallery of Zionist Profiles (New York 1956) 133-6. 72 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 55. 73 R. Kohut (see n. 69) 190-200. 74 M. D. Waldman, Nor by Power (New York 1953) 369 75 J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 14. 76 N. H. Imber, Hebrew Standard, 9 February 1906, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 90. 77 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 56. 78 N. H. Imber, 'Imber's Picture Gallery', in The Reform Advocate, 28 November 1908, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 157. 79 E. Silberschlag (see n. 14) 157. 80 J. Kabakoff (see n. 4) 10. 81 J. Kabakoff (see n. 4) 15-16. 82 J. Kabakoff (see n. 4) 16. 83 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 57. 84 A. Parry (see n. 2) 82. 85 E. Silberschlag (see n. 14) 156. 86 M. Friedman (see n. 67) 88. 87 M. H. Gelber (see n. 55) 61-2. 88 A. Sendrey, A Bibliography of Jewish Music (New York 1951) 19, 44, 63, 86, 119. 89 N. H. Imber, 'Music and the Dance', in Jewish Exponent, 25 November 1892, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 175. 90 P. Gradenwitz, The Music of Israel (New York 1949)307,309. 91 H. Hapgood (see n. 62) 279. 92 B. Winehouse (see n. 50) 8. 93 New York Times (hereafter NYT) 8 October 1909, p. 9. 94 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 59. 95 Letter from Imber to Herzl (undated) in Central Zionist Archives files. 96 Cable from Imber (undated) in Central Zionist Archives files. 97 N. H. Imber, The Maccabean, October 1904, inj. Kabakoff (see n. 4) 175-6. 98 D. Sadan (ed.) The Collected Poems of Naphtali Herz Imber, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 9-10. 99 J- Klausner, History of modern Hebrew Literature 1785-1Q30 (London 1932) in. 100 M. Waxman, A history of Jewish literature IV (New York 1941) 206. 101 H. Hapgood (see n. 62) 277-8. 102 MT, 11 October 1909, 9. 103 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 58. 104 M. H. Gelber (see n. 55) 49. 105 M. H. Gelber (see n. 55) 51. 106 NYT, 9 October 1909, 9. 107 NYT, 10 October 1909, 13. 108 M. H. Gelber (see n. 55) 65. 109 G. H. Wilk (see n. 6) 60. 110 B. Winehouse (see n. 50) 9. in E. Lithman (see n. 8) 138. 112 A^IT, 17 October 1909, n. 113 Jewish Exponent, 13 October 1909, in J. Kabakoff (see n. 3) 9. 114 I. Abrahams, By-Paths in Hebraic Bookland (Philadelphia 1920) 359-64. 115 I. Goldstein, My world as a Jew I (New York 1984) 295. 116 E. Lithman (see n. 8) (preface to this book). 117 S. Ish-Kishor, 'Jewish meals - and Jewish music', The Jewish Tribune, 18 December 1925, 5 118 M. Ravina (see n. 40) 69-70. 119 J. J. Fuld, The Book of world-famous music (New York 1985) 375. 120 A. M. Friedlander, 'Hatikvah (The Hope)', Musical Times LXI (June 1920) 415-16. 121 JC, 26 September 1930, 10. 122 JCy 26 November 1943, 14. 123 JC, 3 December 1943, 12; JC, 24 December 1943, 17. 124 D. de Sola Pool, 'The tune of Hatikvah', Commentary (July 1951) 84. 125 E. Werner, 'The Jewish contribution to music', in L. Finklestein (ed.) The Jews: their role in civilization (New York 1974) 122. 126 A. I. Idelsohn, Jewish music and its histori? cal development (New York 1967) 221-5. P Gradenwitz (see n. 90) 302-3. 127 G. B. Sharp, 'Louis Daquin 1694-1772', Musical Times CXIII (August 1972) 805. 128 P. Gradenwitz (see n. 90) 301, 304. 129 M. Nulman, Concise encyclopaedia of Jewish music (New York 1975) 99. 130 G. List, 'The distribution of a melodic formula: diffusion or polygenesis?', Year Book of the International Folk Music Council (1978) 50. 131 Reverend H. Benarroch. Private com? munication to the author. 132 E. Mandell, Journal of Synagogue Music I (1967) 30. 335</page><page sequence="20">Cecil Bloom 133 A. Bein (see n. 41) 29. 134 M. Ravina (see n. 40) 79. 135 Manuscript of the memoirs of Dr Joseph I. Bluestone, Chapter 7 (the manuscript is housed in the Central Zionist Archives files). 136 JC, 4 August 1905, 24. 137 M. Ravina (see n. 40) 73. 138 JfCf 8 September 1933, 22. 336</page></plain_text>