Neyman was born on March 28, 1865 in Bialystok, Poland. His parents were grain merchants. He studied in a cheder, in a Beit HaMedrash and in the Volozhin Yeshiva. He sang with cantor Moshe Patt for several years first as an alto and then as a bass.

At the age of nineteen he joined the chorus of a German musical troupe and later as a member of the chorus in Weinstock’s yiddishe troupe and for Weinstein in Lodz and the surrounding area.

After that he came to Warsaw and played in the Goldfaden-Tantzman troupe. He performed larger roles in several serial theatrical presentations, and later played the circuit for the same troupe all over Lithuania, Belarus, Galicia and back to Warsaw.

In 1899 he came to America and here he played in New York until 1892. He then went to San Francisco where he performed in the Yiddish theatre. For a year and a half, he then worked in raising chickens in Portland. Subsequently, he was put under contract to Glickman in Chicago where once again, he played on the Yiddish stage.

In 1896 he became the cantor for congregation “B’nai Emunah” in St. Louis.  Five years later he became the sexton in Temple Israel..