To those of you who don’t know, this is Israel’s national anthem. It’s called The Hope. It speaks of the hope of living in Israel after a diaspora of millenia. Apparently, it’s now also been updated. Those wily French!

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8 Comments

  • They could take a few lessons from Yael Naim.

    Is it possible to get the lyrics in French?

  • well, well, well xisnotx, FINALLY we share something in common! I love that Barbara Streisand version as well – and I particularly appreciate the Golda Meir aspect of it too. In the crucial time between the UN’s approval of the partition plan and the departure of the British from the mandate, the Haganah was in desperate need of funds in order to purchase weapons needed for its defense in the inevitable war to come. David Ben Gurion was going to go to America to raise the needed $5 million, but Golda, in a rare example of someone openly expressing disagreement with BG, told him that she should go instead. And go she did. Arriving in America in the winter with just a dress and $10, she returned to Israel after having raised over $50 million from American Jews – 3 times the entire oil revenue generated by Saudi Arabia in 1947. It was said that it was thanks to this Jewish woman’s efforts that the State of Israel was founded. Man, they don’t make ’em like Golda any more…
    (Yes, I just recently read O Jerusalem by Collins and LaPierre)

  • I don’t trust the French – what are they saying?
    Froleyn, you’re…. well, European. What are they saying?

  • I was thinking the exact same thing as Ben-David while watching the clip…that the creepy french guy was saying something like “we’ll get the Jews out of Jerusalem and let the uncircumsized in” That guy is super creepy…looks like the devil himself.

    HOWEVER, the black dude had an AWESOME and VERY SOULFUL voice. If he would have done the whole song in Hebrew it would’ve been very beautiful.

    And now for some more Anthem trivia: It is reported that Tom Jones MAY sing “Land of Our Fathers”, the Welsh anthem, instead of “God Save the Queen” the British anthem, at the World Light Heavyweight Championship in Vegas on the 19th. (Ok, I know I’m the only reader here that cares what Tom Jones sings and when he sings it, but it is appropriate for a posting about anthems, so just indulge me so I don’t go off on a tangent about Orthodox slumlords…)