Star of Hope

Original language

English

Lyricist

Walter J. Kin

Composition date

Not established

Recording

Currently unavailable

The surviving project lyric credits Walter J. Kin and begins with a star shining above a person longing for a homeland. Its images move from the sky to a rooted tree, then to Jerusalem. The project catalog describes the song as inspired by Hatikvah. No verified composition date is established by the surviving lyric record.

The text is short: an opening stanza is followed by a stanza that returns. That repetition puts the emphasis on standing firm and on the wish for freedom, peace and justice. These observations come from the words reproduced below; an unavailable recording cannot establish how they were arranged or sung.

Hatikvah grew from Naftali Herz Imber’s Hebrew poem Tikvatenu, with later changes to the words. The National Library of Israel describes that development and preserves an early handwritten text. Read the Library’s account.

Star of Hope shares the vocabulary of hope, Zion, homeland and Jerusalem, but uses its own English images and phrasing. Its star and tree are not a literal rendering of the familiar anthem text.

The available evidence supports describing it as an original lyric inspired by Hatikvah; it does not establish whether the unavailable recording uses the anthem’s melody. Explore Hatikvah and its history.

The archived YouTube video is currently unavailable, and no matching playable release has been verified for this article. There is therefore no empty player or substitute recording on this page. The full original English words remain available to read and download.

The English and Russian pages describe the same song. The Russian article explains its meaning; it is not a new singable translation. A restored recording can be added once its identity and relationship to this text are verified.

Catalog & licensing · Perform our songs. Questions: doublesign28@gmail.com. Explore Jewish Songs. For All.

Credits & rights

Performer Riglis Band

Music Walter J. Kin

Style Folk-pop ballad with Jewish folk harmonies

Language English

Publisher Rigli Publishing (Walter J. Kin)

Rights owner Rigli Publishing

Licensing Rigli Publishing

Copyright In album collective work (verify deposit)

Free to sing, free to teach

These songs are free for synagogues, JCCs, museums, schools, yeshivas and families. For everyone else, free to start, and a modest fee later, so the songs travel and take root.

Questions, or a use we have not thought of? Write to doublesign28@gmail.com.

More about the wider Jewish Songs. For All project at havanagila.org.

Download the complete English lyric from the project archive. The words are reproduced without editorial corrections.