ANSHL RAYS (ANSELM REISS)

ANSHL RAYS (ANSELM REISS) (November 11, 1886-September 30, 1984)

            He was born in Yaroslav, Galicia.  He graduated from a technical senior high school in Vienna.  He was active from 1906 in Tseire-Tsiyon (Zionist youth), later with Labor Zionism and Mapai (Workers’ Party of the Land of Israel).  In 1925 he departed for Israel, spent 1928-1939 in the leadership of Labor Zionist party back in Poland, and then returned to Israel.  His journalistic activities were confined solely to contributions to the party press: Der yudisher arbayter (The Jewish worker) in Lemberg; Unzer veg (Our way) and Tsaytfragn (Issues of the day) in Kishinev; Bafrayung (Liberation) in Warsaw; and Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) in New York.  He co-edited the organ of the League of a Laboring Israel, the daily Dos vort (The word) in Warsaw and the weekly In kamf (In the struggle) in Warsaw (1938-1939).  He also wrote for Tog (Day) in New York.  Longer works include: “Di tsveyte zayt fun barikade” (The other side of the barricade), in Bayamim hahem—In yene teg (In days gone by) (Tel Aviv, 1968), pp. 3-14; “Di yidn in mizrekh-galitsye” (The Jews of Eastern Galicia), in Sefer hashana g (Yearbook 3) (Tel Aviv, 1970), pp. 33-122.  In Hebrew: Bereshit tenuat hapoalim hayehudim begalitsya (The beginning of the Jewish workers’ movement in Galicia) (Tel Aviv, 1973), 235 pp.; Besaarot hatekufa (In the storms of the era) (Tel Aviv: Am oved, 1982), 326 pp.  He died in Kfar Saba.

Sources: D. Tidhar, in Entsiklopedyah leḥalutse hayishuv uvonav (Encyclopedia of the pioneers and builders of the yishuv), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1950); Yoysef-Leyb Tenenboym, Galitsye mayn alte heym (Galicia, my old home) (Buenos Aires, 1952), see index; Shmuel Izban, in Der amerikaner (New York) (January 15, 1960); Leyb Shpizman, Khalutsim in poyln, antologye fun der khalutsisher bavegung (Pioneers in Poland, anthology of the pioneer movement), 3 vols.  (New York, 1959-1962), see index; Getzel Kressel, in Davar (Tel Aviv) (June 5, 1974).

Ruvn Goldberg

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 510.]