Complex sentence: Charles S. Zimmerman was born Alexander "Sasha" Ubsushone in 1896 of ethnic Jewish parents in the "shtetl" of Talna, in the Ukraine, then part of the Russian empire.
Split into simpler sentences: Charles S. Zimmerman was born of ethnic Jewish parents as Alexander Ubsushone in 1896. Alexander, known to family and friends as "Sasha," was born in the Ukrainian "shtetl" of Talna, then part of the Russian empire.