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Source: https://jcpa.org/a-joyful-song-in-jerusalem-after-the-misery-of-world-war-one-let-us-rejoice/
Hava Nagila" Celebrates the End of World War I
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lenny Ben-David - The World War I years in the Holy Land were traumatic for the Jewish community, which faced starvation, locust plagues, and disease. In 1918, a music teacher and cantor in Jerusalem, Avraham Zvi Idelsohn, took an old tune (nigun) of the Sadigorer Hasidim (from today's Ukraine) and composed a song to celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem and the Balfour Declaration in 1917. It was called "Hava Nagila - Let Us Rejoice!" The song, with phrases from the Psalms, caught on among all Jewish residents of Eretz Yisrael and it became an anthem at Jewish celebrations around the world.