SHIYE RAYZNER

SHIYE RAYZNER (ca. 1860-winter 1915)

            He was born in Lodz.  He traveled over the fields as a blind singer.  A number of his songs, which were examples of primitive wedding-entertainer or street-singer “poetry,” were published, such as Tsvey tayere lieder, Di amerikaner shif, Vi zi iz untergegangen (Two beloved songs, the American ship, how it sank) and Dos tsveyte lied, Di shreklikhe teg in lodz (The second poem, the fearful days in Lodz) (Warsaw: Leyb Morgernshtern, 1911).  He also published a booklet entitled: Badkhonishe lieder (Wedding entertainer songs).

Sources: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 4; Khayim Leyb Fuks, Lodzh shel mayle, dos yidishe gaystiḳe un derhoybene lodzh, 100 yor yidishe un oykh hebreishe literatur un kultur in lodzh un in di arumiḳe shtet un shtetlekh (Lodz on high, the Jewish spiritual and elevated Lodz, 100 years of Yiddish and also Hebrew literature and culture in Lodz and in the surrounding cities and towns) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1972), p. 283; according to Fuks, he wasn’t blind, and according to Reyzen, he died in Warsaw.

Berl Cohen