Born in 1919 in Warsaw, he was active in HaShomer HaTzair during his youth prior to WW2. After the war he was a Zionist activist among the Jews of Bessarabia. In 1952, during the Doctors’ plot, he was arrested and accused of agricultural sabotage and damage to the collective farm’s live-stock .For this he was sentenced to 2 years in prison and 3 years in exile. Released in 1957, he succeeded in fulfilling his dream of emigrating to Israel in 1960.