T. was born on 5 February 1898 in Warsaw, Poland. His father was a [garbarzh]. Until age sixteen he learned in Prager men's gymnasium and never participated in the local student productions.

In 1916 through his friendship with Norvid and Shidla, he continued onto the "amateur" circle lead by Shidla.

T. now entered into the "Artistish vinkele (Artistic Corner)" with the Warsaw "Hazamir", where he debuted as "Mendl" in Peretz Hirshbein's "Di nevilah" under the direction of David Herman and he attended lectures in the dramatic arts with Polish actor and regisseur Alexander Zelverovitsh. Later T. entered into (under the pseudonym of "Zelvitsh" as a senior in the Polish theatre (Dir. Shifman). Here he was invited into the Vilna Troupe, where he acted for the first time in episodic roles, and since 1919 in significant roles. From 1920-22 he served in the Polish army and afterwards traveled to Germany, where he worked in Berlin's people's stage (Folksbiene) as an assistant regisseur under the leadership of A. Feling.

In 1923 he turned up in Poland, where he guest-starred across the province with Shoshana and participated in the film "Tkyet-kf" (Scenery -- Kh. Blum, Direction -- Zigmunt Turkow). In the winter of 1923 T. returned to enter into the Vilna Troupe, which made guest appearances across Rumania. In 1926 he went entirely with directorial work: He staged with the Vilna Troupe a revival of Bimko's "Ganovim (Thieves)" and went to new [oysteytshungen]