Origin of the name Bizer

Surname Bizer (Byzer, Bejzer, Beyzer), in the opinion of the researcher Dr. A. Beider, came from the name of the shtetl Bizi in Daugavpils (Dvinsk) district.

According to another version the name Bizer is a transformed Beizer (Bejzer, Beyzer) that means "angry, rugged, dangerous" in Yiddish.

In both forms this name was spread in such towns as Byalistok, Pruzhany, Kobrin, Slonim, Pinsk, Dubno and others.

One of the famous people having this name is Moses Beizer, a prominent politician and physician who was born in 1807 in L'vov where he died in 1880.

This is what the Jewish Encyclopedia of Brokgauz and Efron writes about him: "Having settled in Kolomeya upon the graduation of the Vienna university, he took part in the revolutionary movement of 1846, for which he was displaced to Zholkiev. During the revolution of 1848 Beizer, while sympathizing the liberals in their struggle with the regime of Metternich, did not share their aspirations for the union of Prussia, Austria and other German states and remained loyal to the Slavic interests. For this separatism he was ostracized by German liberals who were pointing that Jews should not guard the interest of peoples who persecute them most. When the reaction came Moses Beizer dedicated himself to his work as a physician and during the epidemia of cholera of 1853 he was appointed a principal doctor in an army hospital. In 1876 Beizer was elected an honored citizen of L'vov for his wide philanthropic activities, and in 1877 he was elected to the city Duma".