Yitzkhak was a Jewish cobbler in the village of Kolomija. Yitzkhak was born in the village when it was part of Poland. Kolomija came under the rule Joseph II after the Poland was partitioned in 1772. While poor, Yitzkhak had steady work. He had a wife named Rivka, and a son named Aaron. In August, 1772, word reached Kolomija that Sabbatean haidamacks gathering. Yitzkhak and several of his neighbors, both Jews and Poles were terrified, as Kolomija had been attacked several times in the last 40 years, and many could remember those attacks.