Born in 1869 in Warsaw, Poland. Already as a youngster of nine he worked in a cigarette factory and sung as a soprano with various cantors, later with Berl Bernstein in the Warsaw German synagogue. After that, together with Berl Bernstein, he entered as a chorus singer into the "Eldorado" Yiddish theatre under the direction of Tantsman and Spivakovski, and he also acted in small roles, when Abraham Goldfaden arrived in Warsaw, staging his operettas.

After the ban on acting in Yiddish theatre in Warsaw, P. performed together with Abraham Fishkind et al at weddings and brisses, founding afterwards a Yiddish troupe with A. Y. Kaminski, with whom they toured, acting in Sochaczew. They didn't have any material success and returned by foot to Warsaw.

There he performed in "quartets", together with Herman Berman, Gutshe Shvartsbard and Engel, then under the name "Brothers Paul", with the late actors Chizik, Titelman and Sendik, and also as a soldier, together with Chizik, in Yiddish and Russian quartets in one-acters in the service location of Narva.

After military service, he wandered off to London, where he acted in Yiddish theatre in various halls with Kempner, Chizik, Jennie Keyzer and Gazovski, also with Goldschmidt, Kempner and Lanski across the English province, and he went to Germany where he acted in Yiddish theatre with Bleichman in Berlin,