After the Chisināu pogrom in 1903 he migrated with his father to America, where he learned drawing from his father, from whence he became a decorator in Philadelphia. After his father passed away, he went in 1905 to Russia, where he worked as a decorator. In 1905 he sang "Heyse babkelekh (Hot Cakes)" in Goldfaden's "Bobe Yakhne" in an amateur production under the direction of Itshele Schwartz. In 1906 he fled to London, England, and there joined in a vaudeville troupe, where he acted in Christian Street Hal (Leon Berger, the Chizik brothers et al). Not drawing, therefore, an income, he was forced to do various trades. Later he crossed over as a professional in the troupes of Moshe Dovid Waxman ("Pavilion Theatre"), Sigmund Feinman (playing "Samuel" in Gordin's "The Kreutzer Sonata", and "Motele" in "God, Man and Devil", during the guest appearance of Morris Moshkov- ich), and in M. D. Waxman's troupe in Paris in the 'Théâtre St-Denis". Then he was with a troupe that traveled "by foot", traveling across Germany and acting in Aachen, Hanover, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Frankfurt and in Berlin, under the direction of the Lev- ental brothers. During a production with the troupe in Bad Nauheim, where there was also a guest of the Russian tsar, he was arrested for singing a nihilistic song and was sent up the middle leg (etap) to Russia.