Born in Russia in 1889, Jacob Israel Avedon endured a difficult childhood in America, including several years in a Jewish orphanage. After studying at the College of the City of New York, he taught elementary school in Hell's Kitchen. In 1917, he and a brother opened a women's retail shop on Fifth Avenue, which lasted until the Depression led to its closing in 1930. Later, he moved to Sarasota, Florida, where he began a new life as a stockbroker. His biography reads as a classic narrative of the struggles of an American Jewish immigrant.