Yehoshue Rayzner

Very little is known about Yehoshue Rayzner, a blind Yiddish singer and songwriter born in Łódź. Rayzner spent his entire life in Russian Poland as a wandering street singer and entertainer. His poetry was similar to that of badkhonim, traditional wedding singers. Two of Rayzner’s poems, “Di amerikaner shif” (“The American Ship”) and “Di shreklikhe teg in Lodz” (“The Terrible Days in Łódź”), were published in Leyb Morgenshtern’s 1911 collection of Yiddish theater songs. He died in Warsaw, supposedly from starvation.