In 1912, during a guest performance with a Russian theater group in Bialystok, Bertonov encountered Nahum Zemach, later known as the founder of the Hebrew-language Habima Theatre.[1] Bertonov became a member of an amateur Hebrew theatre group that Zemach had organized in Bialystok at that time – one of the forerunners of what later became Habima.[2] When Zemach arranged for his group to perform at the 11th Zionist Congress in Vienna, in 1913, in order to win support for his idea of establishing a Hebrew art theatre, Bertonov directed the play – a Hebrew translation of Osip Dymov's Russian-language historical drama The Eternal Wanderer.[3] Learning his lines in Hebrew under Zemach's guidance, Bertonov, in turn, coached the other actors in Hebrew.[3]