(left), Greenberg (standing in center), and
Alter Kacyzne (wearing glasses) 1922|250px Young Greenberg was encouraged to write by
Shmuel Yankev Imber, a Yiddish neo-romantic poet, and Tsevi Bikeles-Shpitser, the Yiddish theater critic who edited the local newspaper
Tagblat. In the wake of his iconoclastic depictions of Jesus in the second issue of Albatros, particularly his prose poem
Royte 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 like
Die Aktion and
Der Sturm. The journal was banned by the Polish censors, and in November 1922 Greenberg fled to Berlin to escape prosecution. Greenberg published the last two issues of
Albatros in Berlin before renouncing European society and immigrating to Israel in December 1923. In his early days in Israel, Greenberg wrote for
Davar, one of the main newspapers of the
Labour 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. In the second and third issues of Albatros, Greenberg invokes pain as a key marker of the modern era. This theme is illustrated in
Royte epl fun vey beymer (Red apples from the tree of pain) and
Veytikn-heym af slavisher erd (Pain-Home on Slavic Ground). 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. ==Political activism==