Born 5 November 1891 in Warsaw, Poland. His parents were Chasidim and also small merchants. Living next door to the Polish Folks Theatre, S. had the opportunity to become an extra at a very early age and used to imitate the actors at home.

In 1907 S. organized an amateur group with which he put on “Uriel Acosta”. A few group members, including Misha German, later formed a professional troupe and traveled in Poland and Russia.

In 1909 S. joined Julius Adler’s troupe. 

In 1910 he acted together with Zaslavsky, Zelazo and Naomi in Lipovski’s “First Yiddish Folk’s Theatre” in Vilna.

In 1911 S. participated with the operatic troupe of Sandler, Liebert and Kompaneyets in Warsaw. Next he played with the Warsaw Fareinikte [United] troupe which toured throughout southern Russia with a repertoire of Gordin, Asch, Pinski, Ibsen and Zuderman.

At the outbreak of World War I, S. found himself in Harbin as stage manager of the Lipsky troupe. Due to military reasons, S. left Harbin and via Japan immigrated to America, where he and Samuel Goldenburg were engaged by Moshe Schorr.