Robbins was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz in the Jewish Maternity Hospital in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side – a neighborhood populated by many immigrants.[3] The Rabinowitz family lived in a large apartment house at 51 East 97th at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue. Known as "Jerry" to those close to him, Robbins was given a middle name that reflected his parents' patriotic enthusiasm for the then-president. Rabinowitz, however, translates to “son of a rabbi”, a name Robbins never liked, since it marked him as the son of an immigrant. So he took the name "Robbins".
In the early 1920s, the Rabinowitz family moved to Weehawken, New Jersey. His father and uncle opened the “Comfort Corset Company”. The family had many show business connections, including vaudeville performers and theater owners.
Robbins began college studying chemistry at New York University (NYU) but dropped out after a year for financial reasons, and to pursue dance. He studied at the New Dance League, learning ballet with Ella Daganova, Antony Tudor and Eugene Loring; modern dance; Spanish dancing with Helen Veola; folk dance with Yeichi Nimura; and dance composition with Bessie Schonberg.