Mayer was born in 1895, in the city of Stanisławów, Galicia, then in Austria-Hungary (now renamed Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine), to an eminent rabbinical hasidic family.

In 1917, Mayer finished his studies and began teaching and working as an assistant librarian at the Institute of Oriental.

However, due to the turmoil that followed the First World War (Stanisławów was fought over, and occupied at different time, by the forces of Poland, the West Ukrainian National Republic, Romania, the Ukrainian separatist forces and the Red Army, before it was finally incorporated into Poland until 1939), Meyer moved to Berlin and was employed in the oriental department of city's state library.

In the meantime, in 1925, Meyer had joined the first staff of the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was appointed Lecturer in Islamic Art and Archaeology in 1929.

[1] Mayer also worked jointly with Eleazar Sukenik, in connection with the excavations of the "Third Wall" of Jerusalem, built by Agrippa, king of Judea, in 41–44 CE.