​​​Naftali Hertz Imber (1856–1909), born in Złoczów in Poland, is viewed as the pioneer poet of the 'First Aliyah' (the first wave of immigration). Imber stated that he wrote the first draft of the poem 'Tikvateynu' ('Our Hope') in 1878, while a guest of the Jewish Baron Moshe Waldberg at Iasi in Romania. In 1882 he arrived in Palestine as Sir Laurence Oliphant's secretary. During his five years in Palestine, Imber toured the moshavas (early Jewish communities), giving readings of his poem, 'Tikvateynu', and adding verses and making alterations as the muse took him. The poem reached its final, nine-stanza version when it was published in his first collection of poems, Barkai (1886).

The poem was originally set to music by Leon Igli of Rishon Lezion, but the melody was complex and hard to remember.

Rishon Lezion – Adaptation of the melody and alterations to the words of 'HaTikvah'

In 1887, Shmuel Cohen (1870–1940) emigrated from Moldavia to settle in Rishon Lezion. He altered the tune of a Romanian folk song, 'Carul Cu Boi' ('The Cart and Oxen'), to fit the words of 'Tikvateynu' and taught the song to the children of the Rishon Lezion moshava, who sang it here for the first time. From Rishon Lezion, the song became popular throughout the country's Jewish colonies. 'Tikvateynu' quickly 'spread its wings' from Rishon Lezion to reach Jews in the Diaspora as well. The music first appeared in print in 1895 in a booklet called Four Syrian Melodies, published by Cantor Friedland in the German town of Breslau. 

In 1896 Menashe Meirovitch of Rishon Lezion, who belonged to the 'Biluim' immigrant group, published the first Hebrew song book, Folk Songs of Zion, where the poem makes its debut as a song, entitled 'Hatikvah' and with a refrain. 'Hatikvah' in Folk Songs of Zion contained changes made to the song by teachers at Rishon Lezion's school, Mordechai Lubman, David Yudilovitch, and Israel Belkind, with Imber's approval. While he was director of Rishon Lezion School in 1905, Yehuda Leib Metman-Cohen changed the second verse to the version familiar to us today, which became the State of Israel's national anthem:

"I voiced the words and the people replied in song"

Imber's statement explains how the song, which reflected the longing of all Jews everywhere, was chosen by the people. 'Hatikvah' gained acclaim as Israel's national anthem in a natural way, with no official endorsement. The song was first used as the Zionist Movement's anthem at a meeting preceding the fourth Zionist Congress in London in 1900. At the end of the meeting, the audience broke into a spontaneous rendering of 'HaTikvah' and after the Uganda Congress in 1903 it was sung at the end of every Zionist Congress. Only at the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague in 1933 was 'HaTikvah' adopted as the national anthem of the Jewish People. In 2004, 56 years after the establishment of the State of Israel and 117 years since it was first sung in Rishon Lezion, the Knesset legally declared 'HaTikvah' to be Israel's national anthem.

The poet Naftali Hertz Imber, who wrote 'HaTikvah', lived at Jasmine House in Rishon Lezion for three months in 1884. Over the following two years he visited Rishon Lezion on various occasions, describing it in three of his poems and describing it in the Hebrew press with great enthusiasm.

 

The basement where ​Naftali Hertz Imber lived, Rishon Lezion Museum