"Albatros" – Yiddish Journal Edited by Uri Zvi Greenberg – First Issue – Warsaw, 1922 – Dedication by Uri Zvi ...

"Albatros" – Yiddish Journal Edited by Uri Zvi Greenberg – First Issue – Warsaw, 1922 – Dedication by Uri Zvi Greenberg to Artist Marek Szwarc
Albatros, Zhurnal for dem nayem dichter un kinstler oysdruk [Journal for New poetic and artistic expression], edited by Uri Zvi Greenberg. Warsaw: Y. M. Fried, 1922. Yiddish. Cover design by Władysław Weintraub.
The first issue of the modernist Yiddish journal "Albatros", which greatly influenced Yiddish literary circles and Jewish modernism. The issue features the manifesto "To the Opponents of The New Poetry" – a revolutionary composition by Uri Zvi Greenberg, alongside additional groundbreaking compositions, some of them also written by Greenberg. Uri Zvi Greenberg wanted the journal to be groundbreaking both in content and form, and indeed, the graphic design of the journal manifests the expressionist premises of its content.
The issue features a linocut by artist Marek Szwarc. The cover of the issue was designed by Władysław Weintraub. On the inside front cover, an autograph inscription by Uri Zvi Greenberg to Marek Szwarc (Yiddish. Dated: "Warsaw, late Elul 5682 [1922]). The front cover is hand-signed: "Marek 22 Lodz [?]" (presumably, Marek Szwarc's signature).
The second issue of "Albatros" included Uri Zvi Greenbeg's prose poem Royte epl fun Veybeymer ("Red apples from the Trees of Pain"), which dealt with his experiences during World War I. The Polish censors considered the poem to be blasphemous; the journal was banned and Uri Zvi Greenberg was charged with insulting Catholicism. Subsequently, Greenberg left for Berlin, where he published an additional issue of the journal (a double issue, no. 3-4). From there, in 1924, he immigrated to Palestine and continued writing in Hebrew.
Marek Szwarc (1892-1958), a Jewish-Polish painter and sculptor, born in Zgierz (Poland); associated with the School of Paris. Szwarc studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and boarded at the artist's residence La Ruche in the Montparnasse district of Paris, together with Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine and Fernand Léger. In 1912, he was one of the founders of the art magazine "Mahmadim", which was considered the first Jewish art magazine. He exhibited his first sculpture in 1913 in the Salon d'Automne. During World War I, he spent some time in Odessa and Kiev (where he met the literary circle of Mendele Mocher Sforim, Achad Ha'am and Bialik and the avant-garde writers headed by David Bergelson), and later returned to Poland, where he was one of the founders of the Yung-Yidish group. Although he converted to Catholicism, his identity as a Jew never wavered and many of his works dealt with biblical themes.
19 pp, 36 cm. Fair condition. Dry and brittle paper. Closed and open tears. Detached leaves. Detached covers.
Literature: "Be'ovi Hashir" (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2007.