After coming to America, he lived on the
Lower East Side of Manhattan and continued doing menial work, working with his father in a rag shop, all the while composing songs in his mind. He sang at small venues and gatherings, getting attention and small remunerations. By age 30 he had graduated from cafe concerts to the Grand Music Hall, at the corner of
Orchard and
Grand Streets, a Yiddish variety and vaudeville theater on the Lower East Side. He furnished the theater with an original operetta every week as well as writing five to a dozen new songs a week for the actors. He also sang in, directed and produced these operettas. Meyerowitz could not read or write music; he would sing a song for the conductor who would transcribe the music. He created songs for the Yiddish actor and producer
Jacob P. Adler, including "Aheym" for the play
The Power of Nature. When impresario
Boris Thomashefsky wanted a Zionist-themed song for the play
Tate mame tzores (Heartbreak, Papa and Mama), Myerowitz wrote "Kum, srul, kum aheym" (Come, Little Srul, Come Home). His one act operettas played at all of the 14 Yiddish music and vaudeville houses that once existed in New York simultaneously. He showed his patriotism in an early song, "Kolombus, ikh hob tzu dir gornit" (Columbus, I’ve Got Nothing Against You!), with the words: “And I have nothing against you either, America! You’re very good to us, and life here is happy; you’re okay!" He has been described as a member of a "galaxy of
coupletists," who have been credited with creating the genre of Yiddish parodies of American hit songs. The coupletists generally used the songs to discuss the plight of the Jewish immigrants. The genre has been described as the Yiddish equivalent of American popular song. ==Selected music==