Bessarabia Governorate
Born Yisrael Gurfinkel in Hirişeni, Orgeyevsky Uyezd, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (in present-day Moldova), Guri was educated in a heder and a high school in Chişinău, where he was a member of Tzeiri Zion, before attending the University of Odessa. In Odessa he became secretary of the local branch of the Jewish National Fund and of the Urban Zionist Committee.