Born in Britchany, Bessarabia in what was the Tsarist empire, now Romania. He came to Palestine in 1929 where he joined kibbutz Sha'ar Ha'amakin, near Haifa. Four years later he was sent back to Romania as a Zionist youth movement organiser. He returned to Palestine in 1936 where a year later he was elected to the executive committee of Ha-kibbutz Ha'artzi and was involved in organizing political work in Haifa and illegal Jewish immigration. A talented and efficient organizer he was given the task of setting up Hakibbutz Ha'artzi's Arab Department. Party policy advocated an undivided and Socialist Palestine and to this objective he gave lectures and issued bulletins to party members advocating good relations with Arabs. In 1942 he pressed his party into joining the League for Jewish Arab Rapprochement and Cooperation. That year he joined the Histadrut's Arab Department which had a budget of £P 1,800. He had been, and remained, sceptical of Histadrut policy of creating its own Arab trade unions rather than working with existing organizations.Lockman, Zachary. "Comrades and Enemies. Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948".University of California Press, 1996. . Pages 276, 288.
