Y. was born in 1893 in Riga, Latvia. He attended the local city gymnasium, and under the pseudonym "Sovsky", for the first time he performed on 28 September 1909 as "Postmaster" in Gogol's "Revizor (The Inspector General)" in Nezlobin's city theatre, where he remained for the following season. In 1910-11 Y. acted in Bielayev's troupe in Vilna. In 1911-12 he was with the same director in Grodno. In March 1912 Y. acted for the first time in Yiddish in Shavaner's troupe as "Vladimir" in Gordin's "Khasya di itumah (Chasia the Orphan)". For several months he acted in the troupes of Genfer, Lipovski and Kompaneyets across the cities and towns of Kurland, Kovno and Vitebsk Gubernias. In the summer of 1913 he acted in Lodz's circus under the direction of Julius Adler and Lipovski. In the span of that time he acted for the cinematographic company "Mintus" in "Yeshiva bukher".

In 1914 Y. came to Toronto (Canada) in their Yiddish theatre, and in the same summer in Kessler's roof garden in New York, the following season in Kessler's troupe in Chicago, then in the province with Morris Morisson, Sara Adler, and after two years as an actor and assistant director of the "Selznik Moving Picture Company".

In 1918 Y. returned to the Yiddish stage, and until 1922 was manager and director of Baltimore's Lyric Theatre. In 1926 he acted with Thomashefsky across the province, then with the Vilna Troupe during their first tour across America. Since October 1926 Y. has been the manager of a concert bureau in Baltimore.

Sh. E.