Yitzhak Katz was born 19 May 1901 in Mykolaiv in the southwest Russia Empire (today Ukraine) to a religious Jewish family.

In 1906, Katz moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where his father opened a sewing shop and founded the Yiddish Theater Association.

He developed ties at this time with the owner of Tarbut publishing house, Joshua Chachik, and other local intellectuals and artists, among them the painter Reuven Rubin.

Alongside his work in the public sector, Katz published reviews and art criticism in journals and Hebrew newspapers.

[1] When Katz died in 1991, his archive was transferred to the Information Center for Israeli Art in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.