According to his official life story, he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. This was not true, however. He was actually born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. His father, Mayer Samuel Weiss, was a rabbi (a Jewish religious leader) and a well-educated man, with several university degrees. In Budapest, however, he was not able to make a good living. The family was poor, so two years after Ehrich was born, his father decided to go to America.