Rav Yehuda Zev was born in London to Rav Moshe Yitzchok Segal, the Rosh Yeshiva and a former talmid of the Alter of Novardok, who received semicha from Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein, the Aruch HaShulchon. Rav Yehuda’s father, at the age of nineteen, had been drafted into the czar's army, where he insisted on observing mitzvos as well as he could. One day, as Rav Moshe was searching for water, he fled to the border and crossed over to Germany. From there, he headed to England, where he settled and Rav Yehuda was born.
At the age of twenty, Rav Yehuda Zev attended the Mir, where he learned with Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz. He formed a close bond with Rav Yechezkel Levenstein, whom he referred to as mori verabi (my master and teacher). After he married in 1934, he learned in Gateshead, but moved to Manchester after the Germans bombed Gateshead in 1940. On April 16, 1950, he was officially inducted as Rosh Yeshiva by Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, supported by Dayan Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss (the Minchas Yitzchok), then the Manchester Av Bais Din.
