On May 7th, 2008, beginning at 3:00 PM, a group of fifty seven people gathered at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary by singing Hatikva as part of the global Live Hatikva event to set a Guinness World Record for "most people singing an anthem simultaneously."  Over 300,000 people around the world were expected to join in the attempt to break and set the record. The event was a success and our participation contributed to the establishment of a new Guinness World Record! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated! Click here to see our certificate.


 
Jews participated in the singing from all over the world, including such far-flung locales as Shanghai, Tunisia, and Holland, in addition to larger Diaspora communities such Britain, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, New York and San Francisco in America, Ukraine, Moscow, France and the Netherlands. Other participants included 1,000 Canadian participants of the March of the Living, and groups in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The initiative was established by leading Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist Galia Albin. The objective of the project is to increase awareness of the words to Israel's national anthem, and to promote the understanding of its contents and significance. " The global event was broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 and the Internet."I was surprised to see how excited the Diaspora was to join," remarked Albin.

Although it will take some time for the Live Hatikva organization to confirm that the mass singing broke the 15-year-old Guinness world record, Albin is confident that it will do so. She was expecting 40,000 participants in Israel alone, and added: "We're going to break [the record] right here in Kikar Rabin." For Albin, however, breaking the record was not the only important thing on Wednesday night. "We have one song that unites us, and that's 'Hatikva,'" she said proudly.

To read the source articles for the information above click here, here and here.

It was a fun way for us to celebrate this special anniversary!