Metzadah (1927 Lamdan), poetry

Metzadah <Hebrew> / Masada (1927) is a poem by Isaac Lamdan.

Abstract

First visitation of a theme that would become very popular in Jewish literature from the 1960s onwards. It was Lamdan who transformed a symbol of destruction into an emblem of rebirth, renewal, and reconstruction. The line “Again Masada shall not fall” became a motto of the Zionist movement and made the poem Metzadah the most influential literary work for a whole generation of Jewish Israelis.

Editions

Written in 1923-24, was published in Hebrew in 1927 and translated into English in 1952.