T. was born in 1889 in the village Kvasev, Volin Gubernia, Poland, to a religious family.

He learned in a cheder in a nearby village and then with a tutor in his home. He came over with his family to Lutsk, where T. often attended the circus and the guest-starring Yiddish troupes and afterwards created in a [steel=shtal] "theatre" for children. At the age of twelve he came to work in a fashion store. Due to his mother's death he traveled at the age of thirteen to Warsaw, where he often attended the Yiddish theatre. Later he was taken into the dramatic section of "Hazmir" under the leadership of Milner and then, several years, together with several youngsters, traveling from time to time with "amateur" productions in the environs of Warsaw. In 1911 he came to Lodz, and there he performed in a vaudeville theatre and then was taken into the provincial troupe under the leadership of Kuperman, later in Yedvab's troupe, two years performing across Russia with Sharavner's troupe and then across to Sam Adler in Minsk.

In 1914 he acted in Pinsk. Then in Warsaw with Shtrasfogel in he Venus Theatre, in Kaminski's theatre with Tselmeyster and in the Central Theatre. In 1921 T. participated in a tour of Kaminska's troupe across Poland and Galicia and afterwards he acted in Kaminski's theatre (leaders Moshe Lipman and Max Brin), 1922 -- he aced with "Vik"t" in Vilna across the province and later in Warsaw.