Uri Zvi Greenberg (Hebrew:אוּרִי צְבִי גְּרִינְבֵּרְג; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelledUri Zvi Grinberg) was anIsraeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote inYiddish andHebrew.^[1]

Uri Zvi Greenberg
אוּרִי צְבִי גְּרִינְבֵּרְג
Greenberg in 1956
Faction represented in theKnesset
1949–1951	Herut
Personal details
Born	22 September 1896 Bilyi Kamin,Austria-Hungary
Died	8 May 1981(1981-05-08) (aged 84) Ramat Gan,Israel

Widely regarded among the greatest poets in the country's history, he was awarded theIsrael Prize in 1957 and theBialik Prize in 1947, 1954 and 1977, all for his contributions tofine literature. Greenberg is considered the most significant representative of modernistExpressionism in Hebrew and Yiddish literature.

Uri Zvi Greenberg was born in theGalician townBilyi Kamin, inAustria-Hungary, into a prominentHasidic family. He was raised inLemberg (Lwów) where he received a traditional Jewish religious education.^[2]

In 1915, he was drafted into the Austrian army and fought in theFirst World War. His experience at the fording of theSave River, where many of his comrades in arms died or were severely wounded, affected him deeply, and appeared in his future writings for years to come.^[3] After returning to Lemberg, he was witness to thepogroms of November 1918.^[4] Greenberg and his family miraculously escaped being shot by Polish soldiers celebrating their victory over the Ukrainians, an experience which convinced him that all Jews living in the “Kingdom of the Cross” faced physical annihilation.^[3]

Greenberg moved toWarsaw in 1920, where he wrote for the radical literary publications of young Jewish poets.^[5] After a brief stay in Berlin,^[6] heimmigrated toMandatory Palestine (theLand of Israel) in 1923.^[7]

Greenberg spent most of the 1930s in Poland, working as a Revisionist-Zionist activist, until the time when theSecond World War erupted in 1939. At the outset of the war, Greenberg was able to escape and moved to Mandatory Palestine.^[3] His parents and sisters remained behind and were subsequently murdered during theHolocaust.^[7]

In 1950, Greenberg married Aliza, with whom he had three daughters and two sons.^[1] He added "Tur-Malka" to the family name, but continued to use "Greenberg" to honor family members who were murdered in the Holocaust.^[8] Greenberg was a resident ofRamat Gan.^[9]

Young Greenberg was encouraged to write byShmuel Yankev Imber, a Yiddish neo-romantic poet, and Tsevi Bikeles-Shpitser, the Yiddish theater critic who edited the local newspaperTagblat.^[3] Some of his poems inYiddish andHebrew were published when he was 16.^[10][7] His first works were published in 1912 in the Labor Zionist weeklyDer yidisher arbayter (The Jewish Laborer) inLemberg and in Hebrew inHa-Shiloaḥ inOdessa.^[5] His first book, in Yiddish, was published in Lwów while he was fighting on the Serbian front. In 1920, Greenberg moved to Warsaw, with its lively Jewish cultural scene. He was one of the founders ofDi Chaliastre (literally, "the gang"), a group of young Yiddish writers that includedMelech Ravitch. He also edited a Yiddish literary journal,Albatros.^[11] In the wake of his iconoclastic depictions of Jesus in the second issue of Albatros, particularly his prose poemRoyte epl fun veybeymer (Red Apples from the Trees of Pain). The magazine incorporated avant-garde elements both in content and typography, taking its cue from German periodicals likeDie Aktion andDer Sturm.^[12]

The journal was banned by the Polish censors, and in November 1922 Greenberg fled to Berlin to escape prosecution.^[13] Greenberg published the last two issues ofAlbatros in Berlin before renouncing European society and immigrating to Palestine in December 1923.^[14]

In his early days in Palestine, Greenberg wrote forDavar, one of the main newspapers of theLabour Zionist movement. His works represent a synthesis of traditional Jewish values and an individualistic lyrical approach to life and its problems; he drew on Jewish sources such as the Bible, the Talmud and the prayer book, but was also influenced by European literature.^[15] In the second and third issues of Albatros, Greenberg invokes pain as a key marker of the modern era. This theme is illustrated inRoyte epl fun vey beymer(Red apples from the tree of pain) andVeytikn-heym af slavisher erd (Pain-Home on Slavic Ground).^[16]

In his poems and articles, he warned of the fate in store for the Jews of the Diaspora. After the Holocaust, he mourned the fact that his terrible prophecies had come true.

After the1929 Hebron massacre, he became more militant. In 1930, Greenberg joined theRevisionist camp, representing the Revisionist movement at several Zionist congresses and inPoland. WithAbba Ahimeir andYehoshua Yeivin, he foundedBrit HaBirionim, a clandestine, self-declaredfascist faction of the Revisionist movement which adopted an activist policy of violating British mandatory regulations. In the early 1930s, the members of Brit Habirionim group disrupted a British-sponsored census, sounded theshofar in prayer at theWestern Wall despite a British prohibition, held a protest rally when aBritish colonial official visited Tel Aviv, and tore downNazi flags from German offices in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.^[17] When the British arrested hundreds of its members the organization effectively ceased to exist.^{[citation needed]}

Greenberg believed that theHolocaust was a 'tragic but almost inevitable outcome of Jewish indifference to their destiny.' As early as 1923, Greenberg "envisioned and warned of the destruction of European Jewry."^[18]

Scholar Dan Tamir considers Greenberg's ideology among the most prominent historical examples of "Hebrew fascism."^[19]

FollowingIsraeli independence in 1948, Greenberg joinedMenachem Begin'sHerut movement. In 1949, he was elected to thefirst Knesset. He lost his seat in the1951 elections. After theSix-Day War he joined theMovement for Greater Israel, which advocated Israeli sovereignty over theWest Bank.

• In 1947, 1954 and 1977, Greenberg was awarded theBialik Prize forliterature.^[20]
• In 1957, Greenberg was awarded theIsrael Prize for his contribution to literature.^[21]
• In 1976, theKnesset held a special session in honor of his eightieth birthday.^[22]

In Yiddish:

• Evening Gold (פאַרנאַכטנגאָלד): collection from Grinberg’s early Neo-Romantic period.
• Mefisto (מעפיסטא): a long poem engaging with the “Faustian” world, influenced by its depictions byOswald Spengler.
• In the Kingdom of the Cross (אין מלכות פֿון צלם): a long poem drawing on Grinberg’s experiences from the 1918 November Pogroms, intimately engaging with Christian Theology.

In Hebrew:

• A Great Terror and Moon (poetry), Hedim, 1925 (Eymah Gedolah Ve-Yareah)
• The Rising Masculinity (poetry), Sadan, 1926 (Ha-Gavrut Ha-Olah)
• A Vision of One of the Legions (poetry), Sadan, 1928 (Hazon Ehad Ha-Legionot)
• Anacreon at the Pole of Sorrow (poetry), Davar, 1928 (Anacreon Al Kotev Ha-Itzavon)
• House Dog (poetry), Hedim, 1929 (Kelev Bayit)
• A Zone of Defense and Address of the Son-of-Blood (poetry), Sadan, 1929 (Ezor Magen Ve-Ne`um Ben Ha-Dam)
• The Book of Indictment and Faith (poetry), Sadan, 1937 (Sefer Ha-Kitrug Ve-Ha-Emunah)
• From the Ruddy and the Blue (poetry), Schocken, 1950 (Min Ha-Kahlil U-Min Ha-Kahol)
• Streets of the River (poetry), Schocken, 1951 (Rehovot Ha-Nahar)
• In the Middle of the World, In the Middle of Time (poetry), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979 (Be-Emtza Ha-Olam, Be-Emtza Ha-Zmanim)
• Selected Poems (poetry),Schocken Books, 1979 (Mivhar Shirim)
• Complete Works of Uri Zvi Greenberg,Bialik Institute, 1991 (Col Kitvei)
• At the Hub, Bialik Institute, 2007 (Ba-'avi ha-shir)

• The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself
• List of Hebrew-language poets
• List of Israel Prize recipients
• Literature of Israel

• Abramson, Glenda (2008).Hebrew Writing of the First World War. Valentine Mitchell.ISBN 9780853037712.
• Avidov Lipsker,Red Poem\ Blue Poem: Seven Essays on Uri Zvi Grinberg and Two Essays on Else Lasker-Schüler, Bar Ilan University Press, Ramat-Gan 2010.
• Gilles Rozier,D'un pays sans amour, a novel about the life of UZG and his friendship with Peretz Markish and Melekh Ravitch, Grasset, Paris, 2011.

• Collected poems and essays of Uri Zvi Greenberg
• Under the Tooth of their Plow, Uri Zvi Grinberg
• Uri Zvi Greenberg on the Knesset website
• Tamar Wolf-Monzon, Uri Zvi Greenberg and the Pioneers of the Third Aliyah: A Case of Reception
• Uri Zvi Before the Cross: The Figure of Jesus in the Poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg,Religion & Literature, Winter 2009, Neta Stahl
• Walt Whitman and Uri Zvi Greenberg: Voice and Dialogue, Apostrophe and Discourse, Chanita Goodblatt
• Poetry and Prophecy: The image of the poet as a "prophet," a hero and an artist in modern Hebrew poetry