Naphtali Herz Imber

Naphtali Herz Imber (1856 - 1909, b. Galicia), is the poet behind "Ha-Tikvah" (The Hope), the Zionist and later the Israel national anthem. He received a traditional education that did not include secular subjects. He began to write and to travel at a very young age.
Imber arrived in Palestine as secretary of Laurence Oliphant, a Christian Zionist whom he met in Constantinople in 1882. In Palestine he published poems, articles and satires. In 1888, he returned to Europe but soon his restless nature took him back to the East and he wandered as far as Bombay. In 1892 he went to the United States. After a brief visit to London, he returned to America, where he spent the rest of his life in squalor, misery and alcoholism. "Ha-Tikva," first published as "Tikvatenu" (Our Hope) in Imber's first volume of poems is dated "Jerusalem, 1884."

Books Published in Hebrew

Dawn (poetry), Jerusalem, 1884 [Barkay]

The New Dawn (poetry), Zloczow, 1900 [Barkay Ha-Hadash]

The Third Dawn or the Blood Avenger (poetry), New York, 1904 [Barkay Ha-Shelishi O Goel Ha-Dam]

In Memoriam for the Slaughtered and Burnt in the Bloody Land, the Land of Russia (poetry), New York, 1905 [Yizkor Be'ad Ha-NishhatimVe-Ha-Nisrafim Be-Eretz Ha-Damim, Eretz Russia]

To the Hebrew Language (poetry), Philadelphia, 1907 [Lach Ivrit]

Selected Writings of Naphtali Herz Imber, Committee for the 50th Anniversary of Hatikvah, 1929 [Mivhar Kitvei Naphatali Herz Imber]

Collected Poems of Naphtali Herz Imber, 1950

Books in Translation

Collected Works - Master of Hope
English: New York, Herzl Press, 1985

Individual poems have been published in: English, French, and Spanish.