Yitzchak Rayz (1885-1943), 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]
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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."
Note: Publication dates here refer to English translations, not the Yiddish originals, which often predate their translations by ten to more than fifty years.