A. was born on 21 June 1897 in Dvinsk, Latvia. His father was a tailor. Until age twelve he learned in a cheder and yeshiva, then until age fifteen in a middle school. In 1907 he saw the guest-starring Esther Rukhl Kaminska in Dvinsk, and since then he began to strive for the theatre, organized in school several productions, became an understudy in Yiddish and Russian troupes, later fleeing with Guzik's troupe for several months and came back as a [replacement=entoysht], began then to work in dramas, especially in Riga's "Evriya".

In 1917 A. came to Kharkov where he took an active part in founding the Yiddish Artists Union, and he helped with organizing the "Unzer vinkl" theatre, in which he entered into to act, and he participated at the same time in the theatre studio under the direction of M. Rapelsky. In 1921 A. traveled to Kovno and helped there with the creation of the Yiddish theatre studio with [natsyonalrat], and later with the "Kultur-lige (Culture League)". In October 1923 A. was called on by Rapelsky to Moscow to perform in the State Yiddish Theatre Studio of White Russia, which in 1926 was transformed into the "Yiddish State Theatre of V. S. S. R.", where A. until now was active as an actor. From 1925-8 A. also was regisseur in dramas with the worker clubs in Minsk and Homel, and also as a regisseur-[lavarant] in "Vim"t" (White Russian Yiddish State Theatre).