Born in Dubroŭna, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (now in Belarus), the son of Jewish parents: a doctor and amateur violinist,[1] Zeitlin won a scholarship at the age of 11 to the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the youngest scholarship student in the institution's history.
[2] He subsequently read Judaic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and served in the Royal Air Force from 1943 to 1946.
Following World War II, he returned to Juilliard for additional studies, with such teachers as Sascha Jacobsen, Louis Persinger, and Ivan Galamian.
He was also a particular champion of the violin concerto of Arnold Schoenberg and recorded this work commercially for Deutsche Grammophon.
[1][3] From 1962 to 2002, he performed on a rare Cremonese violin by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, the 1734 "Prince Doria", which was initially gifted to him by the Lionello Perera family, before switching to a replica by the contemporary American violinmaker, Gregg T. Alf.