Berlin was born Israel Isidore Baline, or Beilin[1] to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Mogilev, now Belarus (according to other sources possibly in Tyumen, Russia).[2] His family immigrated to the United States in 1893. His parents were Leah (Lena) Yarchin and Mosheh (Moses) Baline (transcribed as Beilin); his father was a cantor who obtained other paid work certifying kosher meat.[3]