Solomon Stramer, was the leader of a Yiddish theater troupe founded in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, but based in Cluj

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, Romania from 1919 at least until the late 1920s. For a time, his troupe had the exclusive right to perform Yiddish-language theater in Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

, an area which at that time was home to about 300,000 Jews.

Stramer's troupe, which after a shaky start developed into a solid operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 company, deviated from the usual patterns of Yiddish theater in that he successfully achieved a compromise with many Orthodox Jewish groups who had normally been opposed to Yiddish theater, which they saw as a secularizing

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

 force. Stramer's productions even incorporated Hasidic songs.

By 1922, Stramer's troupe had taken the name Teatrul Naţional Evreiesc Habimah (Habimah National Yiddish Theater). They sought, and in March 1922 received, the backing of the Uniune Naţională a Evreilor din Ardeal (National Union of Transylvanian Jews) for the exclusive right to perform Yiddish theater in Transylvania. The Romanian Ministry of Arts chose to back that exclusivity with the force of law: in August 1922, Sara Kanner, widow of Leopold Kanner, was told by the Ministry that she was welcome to perform Yiddish theater anywhere in Romania outside of Transylvania. The exclusive held for several years, and was finally broken around 1926 when an avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

Yiddish theater troupe, who were clearly doing a very different type of theater from Stramer's operetta company, were given permission to tour in Transylvania.
Solomon Stramer recorded on 78rpm records for Decca, Victor and Odeon.