Hoffman was born in the village of Krug, near Boysk, in the Courland Governorate.

He studied at various yeshivas in the region, meanwhile becoming acquainted with Maskilic literature, before moving to Vilna at the age of sixteen.

[1] He later studied at the Universities of Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Berlin, and Bern, and obtained a doctorate in engineering.

His first articles appeared in Hebrew in Ha-Melitz in 1895; he would go on to contribute to Ha-Zman [Wikidata], Forverts, Di tsukunft, Der yidisher arbeyter, Folkstsaytung, and Fraynd, among other periodicals.

The following year, he co-founded a socialist Zionist circle in Riga and joined the Bundist movement.