The Hatikvah’s Hopeful Call to Action

When Naftali Herz Imber wrote the Hatikvah, within the borders of the then Kingdom of Galicia and what is now Ukraine, he was speaking to the ages.

The Hatikvah, or the Hope, was written in 1878 and now serves as the Israeli National Anthem. Then, the Jewish people had already faced the rampages of Rome, the insidious Spanish Inquisition, and centuries of catastrophic killing. Nevertheless, as Jews, we still had yet to face the horrors of the Holocaust and the hideous massacre of Hamas.

Imber’s poetry radiates through time when he says, “As long as within our hearts, the Jewish soul sings, as long as forward to the East, to Zion looks the eye – Our hope is yet not lost, it is two-thousand years old, to be a free people in our land, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Today, the soul of the Jewish people feels the pain of continued attempts at our extermination; however, as an American Jew, Imber’s words remind me that we will outlast the blood-soaked persecutors. We will meet the Islamic fascists on the turf of our ancestors and reclaim what is rightfully our land. We will annihilate Hamas with the same purpose, and without mercy, that we destroyed Nazi dictatorship at Dresden during World War Two.

I have full confidence that America, Israel, Ukraine, and yes, Taiwan will be at the tip of the spear in what is quickly becoming a last stand for global liberty. I strongly implore the world to join our crusade for freedom. Just as Imber implied, within the Jewish soul and all life, where there exists the heart of humanity also breathes hope.