.Born on 20 August 1893 in Yavornik, near Dinev, Galicia.

His father was a merchant (a descendant of Rabbi R'Dovid'l), who had immigrated to America. He studied in cheders and in school.

In 1904 he came to his father in America and here worked by day in a shop, and in the evening studied in New York.

He attended the performance of Gordin's "Tsvey veltn (Two Worlds)" and developed a strong desire for the stage. He then joined up with Caesar Greenberg's Yiddish Dramatic School where he debuted in 1907 in the piece "Khakhm as nshim" and afterwards with amateurs throughout the province.

Growing as an actor with each year, P. became a legitimate actor in Baltimore's Polly Theatre with Louie Sheffer. Later he worked at the Liberty Theatre in Brownsville. He performed for five years with Anshel Schorr in Philadelphia, afterwards in Chicago with Elias Glickman, in Boston with Julius Nathanson, in New York's Second Avenue with Edelstein, from 1926-29 at Gabel's, in 1929-30 in the National Theatre, in 1930-31 in Chicago, and later he guest-starred with Dora Weissman and Anshel Schorr in Argentina. He acted for several years in Philadelphia, in 1938-9 with Maurice Schwartz's [Yiddish] Art Theatre, in 1939-40 with the troupes which the Yiddish Actors Union had put on performances in Chicago and Philadelphia; 1940-41--throughout the province; 1941-42  at the Second Avenue Theatre (Director Herman Yablokoff), and 1942-44 at the Parkview Theatre (Directors Nathan Goldberg and Jacob Jacobs).