Quick Facts
Biography
Yitzchak Rayz (1885, Narayiv - 1943), better known by his pen name Moyshe Nadir (Yiddish: משה נאדיר ; also transliterated "Moishe"). was an American Yiddish language writer and satirist. Rayz was born in the town of Narayev, in eastern Galicia, then Austro-Hungary. He died in 1943, in Woodstock, New York.
Biography
In 1898, at the age of 13, Rayz immigrated to New Yorkand adopted the Americanized name Isaac Reiss. Within a few years his work was published widely in the New York Yiddish press, under a variety of pseudonyms, including Rinnalde Rinaldine, Dilensee Mirkarosh, Der Royzenkavalir, Doctor Hotzikl, and, finally, Moishe Nadir. The name "Nadir" is a Yiddish expression meaning "here you are" or "that's for you."
Published works
Note: Publication dates here refer to English translations, not the Yiddish originals, which often predate their translations by ten to more than fifty years.
- From Man to Man ("fun mentsh tsu mentsh") (2006) (This includes an extensive biographical essay by the translator, Harvey Fink.)
- For a 1920 collection of his literary improvisations in English translation see Peh-el-peh (Face to Face), translated by Joseph Kling, Pagan Publishing Co., New York.