The Unlikely History of Hava Nagila

I thought the Jewish folksong Hava Nagila was hundreds of years old, and that Jews sang and danced the hora in shtels in Eastern Europe and Russia long ago. I was surprised to find out that the song itself is only about 160 years old! It's a song known by Jews and non-Jews alike, and has been sung by every famous singer of the past 50 years, from Elvis Presley, to Connie Francis, to Harry Belafonte. Here's a bit of where it came from and how it came to be one of the most recognized melodies in the world.Hava Nagila began its life as a Hasidic melody in the Ukraine. There it was sung as a nigun (wordless melody) among the Sadigorer Hasidim. Rebbe Yisroel Friedman (1798-1850) had settled there, built The Great Synagogue, and had a huge following. Around 1900, a group of Sadigorer Hasidim emigrated to Jerusalem and brought the nigun (wordless melody) with them. There it might have remained, had it not been for one man, Avraham Zvi Idelsohn,the father of Jewish musicology.Idelsohn was trained as a cantor in Russia and also studied classical music in conservatories in Berlin and Leipzig before settling in Jerusalem around 1905. As a passionate Zionist, Idelshon sought to collect and preserve the folk music of Jewish communities from around the world, while still seeking to pioneer a new style of modern national music that would unify the Jewish people as they returned to their homeland in Palestine. To that end, he arranged and composed many new Hebrew-language songs based on traditional melodies. Among them was Hava Nagila.Hava Nagila really caught fire in the U.S. in the 1950's. The Jewish folkdance, the hora, was danced while people sang. The title of the song means "Let us rejoice," and that is exactly what people are doing while singing and dancing. Most people, even Jews, have no idea what it means, where it comes from, or how it became so popular, but it is recognized as one of the most familiar tunes worldwide.I watched a documentary on the history of this song recently, and there were some really funny scenes in the movie. They asked African Americans in a New York deli, "What is Hava Nagila?" Some thought it was a food, most had no idea. The documentary showed a South Korean choir singing Hava Nagila, and an Egyptian exotic dancer singing it too. Some people hate the song, others love it, but there's no denying that when you hear that familiar melody you want to get up and dance. Next time you're at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah and dance the hora and sing Hava Nagila and rejoice in the celebration, you'll know a little bit more about how it became so popular.