Uri Zvi Grinberg (Tur Malka)

Uri Zvi Grinberg (1896 - 1981, Bialykamien, Galicia) was born to a Chassidic family and received a traditional Chassidic education. His early poems, both in Hebrew and Yiddish, were published in 1912. In 1915 he was drafted into the Austrian army and fought during World War I. In 1917 he deserted and returned to Lvov, where he witnessed the Polish pogroms against the Jews in 1918.
As a newspaper editor in Warsaw in the 1920s, Grinberg warned Poland`s Jews of impending disaster. In 1923, he immigrated to Tel Aviv. He became a revisionist, rejecting all suggestions for territorial compromise in the region and joined the struggle to end the British occupation. He stressed the importance of the revival of the Hebrew language.
Uri Zvi Grinberg saw himself as a prophet destined to warn the Jewish people of a fate they refused to recognize. Haunted by his experiences in pogroms, Arab rioting in the pre-State period and the horror of the Holocaust, his poetry urges the mobilization of all available resources to avoid repetiting the historic tragedies of his people.
With lush language and a fiery style, Grinberg`s poetry expresses the love, hate, fury and joy of a stormy spirit. Widely commended for his expressive power and linguistic richness, he calls on physical images from the landscape of Poland and his chosen homeland, as well as elements of the entire scope of Jewish history, to articulate his particular vision. Often a figure of controversy, alternately criticized and praised for being a mystic, Grinberg is widely recognized as one of the greatest modern Hebrew poets. Grinberg received honorary doctorates from Yeshiva, Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv Universities, and many literary awards, including the 1957 Israel Prize.

Books Published in Hebrew

A Great Fear and the Moon (poetry), Hedim, 1925 [Eymah Gedolah Ve-Iareah]

Manhood on the Rise (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 ofthe World, In the Middle of Time (poetry), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979 [Be-Emtza Ha-Olam, Be-Emtza Ha-Zmanim]

Selected Poems (poetry), Schocken, 1979 [Mivhar Shirim]

Complete Works of Uri Zvi Greenberg, Bialik Institute, 1991 [Col Kitvei]

At the Hub, Bialik Institute, 2007 [Baavi Ha-Shir]

Books in Translation

Selected Poems
English: New York, Blackstone, 1939

Individual poems have been published in: Czech, English, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yiddish.

Last updated: 01.05.2008