Abraham Kaufman was born to Yosef Zalmonovich Kaufman in 1885 in Megilne (Мглине), a tiny Jewish village near Chernigov (ex-Chernihovsky Region –– бывшей Черниговской губернии) in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire). He was a great grandson of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who founded the Chabad movement. Kaufman graduated from a traditional Gymnasium Institute (secondary school) in Perm, Russia, in 1903, where he became interested in Zionism.