(The Hope)
Anthem of the Zionist Movement adopted at the first Zionist Congress in 1897 and the national anthem of the state of Israel. It expresses the hope and yearning of the Jew for the return to Zion. It was written by the Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber and first published in Jerusalem in 1886:
As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,
With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,
Then our hope—the two-thousand-year-old hope—will not be lost:
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Historical Dictionary of Israel. Bernard Reich David H. Goldberg. Edited by Jon Woronoff..