Born on 15 October 1900 in the village Oleyuv, Eastern Galicia, to Chasidic parents. His father was a merchant. Until the age of twelve he learned in a cheder. Without the knowledge of his parents he attended the local folkshul, where he learned in a yarmulke (skullcap). Very young he became a [drdki]-melamed (teacher), so that he could help with the income at home.

During the outbreak of war he fled with his parents to Galicia and in 1916 came to Vienna, where he worked in various factories [tsu] afterwards his family in the absence of his military-mobilized father.

Through friends he continued in the union "Tsion", where he came for productions of literary plays under the direction of Jonah Reyzman and Jacob Mestel. Here S. debuted as "Yakov Enman" in Dymov's "Shma yisrael". Having a strong desire for the stage, he took dramatic courses with  the [oyber] director of the Vienna city theatre Julius Halle and he also performed in the dramatic courses with the "Freye yidishe folks-bine", where he learned from teacher Egon Brekher, Jacob Mestel, Dr. Frish and I. Baltukh.

In May 1920 he entered the troupe as a professional, which Itzhak Deytsh hereupon [shtelt kur-plats] Marienbad and here he debuted as "Dr. Abram" in Lateiner's "Khinke eun pinke" in a restaurant with David Lateiner in Marienbad. After acting there for three months, he returned to Vienna, where he joined the "Freye yidishe folks-bine", which  was transformed into a stable Yiddish theatre.