 Various sources state that he was born in either 1893 or 1898, and either in Poland generally, specifically in the Polish town of Ryki, or in Riga, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire).In 1912, Afroyim immigrated to the United States, and on June 14, 1926, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen.He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the National Academy of Design in New York City, and he was commissioned to paint portraits of George Bernard Shaw, Theodore Dreiser, and Arnold Schoenberg.