Dinah Shtettin was born in Poland to strict Orthodox Jewish parents.
At this time, he was in a relationship with Jenny Kaiser, with whom he had become romantically involved while still married to his first wife, Sonya.
Celia took her stepfather's surname in childhood, but took her father's name in her career, becoming a leading actress on the Yiddish stage.
[6] Shtettin's New York debut was in the role of Fanya, the villain's daughter, in Jacob Gordin's Siberia (1892).
Commercially unsuccessful at the time, this first play of Gordin's is now considered a landmark in the evolution of Yiddish theater.