The sudden death of his religious father disrupted his childhood and led him toward traditional Talmudic learning. His move to kyiv for six years marked his first family emancipation. There, he discovered sculpture by modeling clay figures and studied at the Sabatovsky School of Art while earning his living as a can manufacturer.
His arrival in Paris in 1912 was warmly welcomed by the sculptor Marek Szwarc, demonstrating the solidarity that united the immigrant artists of the School of Paris. Moving to La Ruche, a center of cosmopolitan creativity, and sharing a studio with Chaïm Soutine for two years immediately brought him into avant-garde circles.
The illness that struck a year after his arrival was a decisive turning point: forced to abandon sculpture, this ordeal definitively oriented him towards painting. This forced reconversion revealed his capacity for adaptation and his artistic determination.
In 1914, his enlistment in the Foreign Legion demonstrated his nascent French patriotism, but his exemption for health reasons confirmed his physical fragility. Returning to Parisian life, he attended the Académie Colarossi, completing his artistic training.
His encounter with Vera Kremer enriched his personal and political trajectory. The daughter of Arkady Kremer, founder of the Bund (a Jewish socialist movement), she brought him into progressive intellectual networks. Their marriage in 1926 coincided with his artistic maturity.
His participation in the 1928 Salon d'Automne with "Femme Assise" marked his official recognition. After twenty-seven years at La Ruche, his move to Rue d'Odessa in 1934 signaled a social evolution towards a bourgeois neighborhood, perhaps testifying to a growing artistic success that allowed him to improve his living conditions.
