Nathan Rybak was born in 1912 in Radom, Poland. He was the second youngest of eight brothers and sisters. The family lived on a dairy farm and, because the synagogue played an important role in his early life, Nathan at one point wanted to be a rabbi.
Nathan left Poland with his younger brother in 1935, as conditions for Jews were rapidly deteriorating. His three older brothers and one sister also managed to escape Poland. Two ended up in New York, one in Argentina, and one in Israel. Nathan tried for years to save money to get the remaining family members out, but his parents and two remaining sisters did not survive the Holocaust.
Nathan and his brother Oscar immigrated to New York in 1945 and began a fabric business. Nathan met and married Ruth in 1946. In 1948, they moved to El Paso and opened La Barata, a piece goods store, which eventually grew to four stores. Nathan and Ruth had four children. Nathan died in 1986.