Yehudah Grinhoyz, was born on March 5, 1891 in Bialystok, Poland. 

His father was a prayer leader in the synagogue. His mother was the bread-winner and ran a dry-goods store. He studied in cheders and then at a yeshiva, and he also finished a four-class Russian public school.

When he was still a child he sang with various cantors: Moshe Bass, Shpulyansky and with Berman in the Choral Synagogue. 

Later he became a member in the dramatic and musical section of the state-run “Yiddish Arts” organization. In 1910 he joined Bernstein’s troupe as a chorus member and was almost immediately given some small roles to play. After touring with this troupe for almost a year, Grinhoyz returned to Bialystok where he joined Tzemakh’s Hebrew Productions, and he traveled thereafter with Tzemakh’s Hebrew troupe to Vienna and from there to other  cities in Poland. At the time of the German Occupation, in World War I, Grinhoyz was the director and leader of a troupe of young actors. Still later, he and Mayer Schwartz were co-directors of another troupe until 1918. Following that period he took part in various Yiddish troupes that performed in Bialystok.

Sh. E.