Naftali Herz Imber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naftali Herz Imber (Hebrew: נפתלי הרץ אימבר, Yiddish: נפתלי הערץ אימבער, Ukrainian: Нафталі Герць Імбер, also known as Naftali Tzvi Imber, Naftali Zvi Imber, Naftali Hertz Imber or Naftali Hirsch Imber, born 1856, died 8 October 1909) was a secular Jewish poet and Zionist who wrote the lyrics of Hatikvah, the national anthem of the State of Israel.
Naftali was born in Złoczów (now Zolochiv, Ukraine), a town in Galicia, Austrian Empire. 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. [1] In his youth he travelled in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania.
In 1882 Imber moved to Palestine as a secretary of Sir Laurence Oliphant. In 1886 in Jerusalem he published his first book of poems entitled Morning Star (Hebrew: ברקאי, Barkai). One of the book's poems was Tikvateinu ("Our Hope"); its very first version was written yet in 1877 in Iaşi, Romania. This poem soon became the lyrics of the Zionist anthem and later the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah.
In 1887 he returned to Europe and lived in London; then travelled again, visited India and finally moved to the USA in 1892. He died in New York in 1909 from chronic alcoholism;[1] in 1953 was re-interred in Jerusalem.
[edit] References
- ^ Drinking Problem? What Drinking Problem? Aaron Howard
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Imber, Naftali Herz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Jewish poet, writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1856 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zloczow, Austrian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 8, 1909 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | New York, United States |
