Founder Joseph Yudofsky emigrated from Lithuania to Louisville in 1925 at the age of 13. At 15 he left Louisville for New York, where he mastered all aspects of the fur trade, including designing, pattern-making, cutting, sewing and nailing (blocking the partially finished garment by nailing the dampened skins to a board according to a pattern). It is rare for one person to be able to perform all the steps needed to complete a fur garment, as did the young Mr. Yudofsky.

Although Joseph's original plan was to set up a manufacturing business in New York, his two older brothers, Harry and Morris (who were both married with children), lost their jobs with a Louisville furrier, forcing young Joseph, (who was still single) to turn his life savings into fur pelts, return to Louisville, and open a business with his brothers.

Yudofsky Furriers became an original tenant in Louisville's first "skyscraper," the Heyburn Building at Fourth and Broadway in Downtown Louisville, where it remained for over four decades. In 1940, Joseph married the former Dorothy Krotzki. Dorothy joined the business and worked alongside her husband, brothers and sister-in-law, Ruth. The men worked upstairs in the fur factory creating Louisville's finest fur fashions, while Dorothy and Ruth handled the business end downstairs in the salon.

In the early 1970s, daughter Joy Yudofsky, a biochemist by profession, began working full-time in the store, learning both sides of the family business. Within a few years, Joy was managing her own branch of Yudofsky Furriers at Oxmoor Center in Louisville's east end. Ultimately, Joy built a factory and storage vaults on their Oxmoor premises, where Joy was joined by her father. Her mother opened a new salon in downtown Louisville's other "skyscraper," the Starks Building.

Both of Joy's parents worked in their respective stores until their passing, Dorothy at 70, and Master Furrier Joseph at nearly 88. After her father's death in 1998, Joy continued to manage the Oxmoor store along with her highly skilled, long-term staff, dedicating herself to the Yudofsky family's high standards.

On January 3, 2006, the store moved and reopened in a new location at Holiday Manor Center, about 5 minutes from the previous location.

Yudofsky Furriers, now in its 80th year, remains one of the country's largest and finest fur businesses.