Born in 1883 in Iasi, Romania. Father -- owner of a furniture workshop, a prayer leader, a musician. Was a choir boy at first with his father, then with R' Moshele, cantor in the large synagogue. Often attending the theatre, Z. developed a desire for the stage.

On the initiative of his friend, the future actor Aaron Mitelman, Z. joined (without the knowledge of his family) in 1890 the quartet of Mitelman, Baran and Gizets. A year later Z.'s father passed away, and Z. had to leave the stage and take over his father's workshop.

With the idea of immigrating to America, Z. set out into the world Sang in the meantime in Vienna in restaurants, associating himself in Hill (England) with a a dramatic union, where he performed as "Shmendrik", went then over as a character-comic to Manchester in the local professional Yiddish troupe (Esther Vaksman, Kafler, Yakobovitsh and wife), acting for a short time with Treitler's troupe and again with Esther Vaksman's troupe, then in Liverpool with Max Kurtz, Harry Feinberg, Gazovski and Aba Rosenzweig, and for a short time with Avraham Goldfaden.

Arriving in America, Z. performed with Charles Nathanson in Philadelphia, then acting for a long time in vaudeville with Golubok in Brooklyn, later in legitimate theatre with Silbert in Boston, and when he became a member in the Actors Union, he left the stage and opened a furniture business.

Sh. E.