Moyshe Nadir

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.^[1] Rayz was born in the town of Narayev, in eastern Galicia, then Austro-Hungary. He died in 1943, in Woodstock, New York.^[2]

Biography

In 1898, at the age of 13, Rayz immigrated to New York ^[3] and adopted the Americanized name Isaac Reiss.^[4] 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.

See also

• Yiddish literature
• Yiddish language
• Yiddish Renaissance
• List of Yiddish language poets
• Yiddish theatre

References

1. Cohen, Joshua (June 1, 2007). "A Forgotten Writer’s Paradise Of Prose and Poetry". The Jewish Daily Forward.
2. Cohen, Joshua (June 25, 2009). "On the Other Side". Tablet.
3. Nadir, Moishe (2006). From Man to Man ("fun mentsh tsu mentsh"). Canada: Windshift Press. ISBN 0-9780056-0-0.
4. Schechter, Joel (Summer 2010). "In a Moyshenadirish World" (PDF). Jewish Currents.