R. Micha'el Rosenberg on HaZikaron/Yom Ha'Atzma’ut: The Religious Sensibility of Hatikvah

Although it eventually won out, it was not always obvious that “Hatikvah” would be the Israeli national anthem. There were other competitors, and various critiques of the poem written by Naphtali Hertz Imber. Among those critiques was a voice from at least some religious Zionists who thought the work too secular to reflect the religious import of the new state. Some advocated instead for Psalm 126 (often known as Shir ha-Ma’alot), as the national anthem.