Born on 18 December 1884 in Tulchin, Ukraine. His father -- a melamed, a mashkhil, who they thus called "Deytsh". He learned with his father and in a Beit HaMedrash. "Helped" with the other children in the home directed by his father, who also was a prayer leader.

D. Learned to be a locksmith, and when his family went to a sister's wedding in Odessa, he remained there as a locksmith, but soon he cast off his profession and went into work in a boards/panels business, then a year in a haberdashery business, then a short time in a tobacco business, joining a brother as a commissioner, until pushed into military conscription, and he fled to Brody, where he had a brother who was a cantor, and he became a choir boy for him. Being there for ten months, he learned some notes and left to Gimpel in Lemberg, where he joined in the chorus and soon received small roles. After acting there for three years, he went over to a provincial director Drucker, with whom he acted in lover roles. But he was there for only two months and then joined Ebell for a season, and from there a season with Akselrad in Czernowitz, and then with Ziegler in Vienna.

Under the supervision of Jacob Mestel, with whom he became close friends, he began to read Yiddish literature and became interested in pure Yiddish theatre, so that in 1919 he participated in the Sunday literary productions of the "Fraye yidishe folks-bine". In the summer of 1920 he performed entirely out of Yiddish