Tashrak (Yisroel Yosef Zevin)

Born to an affluent Hasidic family in Horki, Russian Empire (today in Belarus), Yisroel Yosef Zevin received a traditional education as well as instruction in Russian and German. Zevin immigrated to New York City in 1889 and joined the staff of the Orthodox daily Yidishe tageblatt in 1893; he contributed to the newspaper regularly for the rest of his life, working his way up to become an associate editor. Zevin also published widely—often pseudonymously—in the Yiddish press, as well as in Hebrew and English periodicals in New York and abroad. His most commonly used pen name was Tashrak (shorthand for the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in reverse order, equivalent to ZYXW); he also used the name Yudkovitsh. From 1914 to 1917, Zevin wrote an English-language column in the Sunday edition of The New York Herald, earning a substantial following for his representations of Jewish New York. Primarily known for his humorous stories about immigrant life, Zevin also wrote novels, children’s books, and collections of talmudic tales.