He was born in Kolomea, Galicia. My father was a traveling salesman (going from town to town) and a literary education is something he could not offer him. As Shtrudler had a beautiful voice and an ability to sing, he became a choir boy for the local cantor R' Itshele. After that he saw a groups of actors from Goldfaden's troupe, which had come from Romania and given several productions. He filled in the home with everything he saw with them.

Shtrudler was fifteen years old when he connected with a group of the "Broder Singer," and it didn't take long before he became very popular as a folksinger.

With time he received a concession for a "German-Yiddish Song-Play Theatre," and he created his own troupe in which there participated Sholom Podzamce, Yona Reisman, Itshe Glantz, Saltshe Desser et al, where also Shtrudler's wife, Neche.  For a time there were also in the troupe Pepi Littman and her husband. With the troupe Shtrudler used to perform in bars and often when the visitors are there, after a few glasses of beer, he was in a good mood, they were called to say, "Get Up," D.H. improvised outside of the program. He took grim grits and also didn't care for the crackling jokes that evoked a roar of laughter. For this particular program, he would pay salaried people separately from listeners.

When business in Lemberg became weak, Shtrudler left with his troupe earlier over to Galicia, then across the Jewish communities in Hungary, Bukovina and Romania. But he didn't take his entire personnel everywhere. Most of the time he used to only take his wife, but on a large poster he let it be known that "Bar Kokhba," "Shulamis," "Beit Yerushalayim," or other plays of Goldfaden and other authors will be played. However, the program used to consist of only a few couplets and poems, at most a scene from the above plays, in which the performers consisted of only two persons, in the "production," which was given in a bar or in a home, without a stage and only with a table with two lights. But despite this, the visitors were thrilled, because no other theater company had ever seen them and were sure that this is what the theater looks like, and even later when the same visitor already had the opportunity to see Yiddish theatre play by real troupes, Shtrudler still attracted a large crowd that wanted to take care of him.

After the First World War Shtrudler broke a foot, which had to be operated on. Just as he was no longer able to work with his wooden leg, he was instructed by the Lemberg Yiddish actors to enter an old-age home. However, there he was very dissatisfied because he still believed that he is the "former (amoliker)," and he used to have conflicts with the curators, they attacked with treachery, until he alone left the old-age home, and not knowing how to earn a living, he began to beg. In December 1930 he passed away in Lemberg in the middle of the street.

As Y. Yakobovski writes, not many Jews were involved in his funeral, since they had been dead for a long time. In spite of all the trouble, he did not lose his humor until the last minute of his life, and to the doctor who cut off his foot, he said. "Doctor, my foot has been cut off, but you will not cut out this throat from me."

According to M. Myodovnik he saw him play once in "Akhashveyresh (Ahasuerus)," and around 1887 Shtrudler arrived in Bendin, and the congregation rejoiced at the wedding of Gvir R' Shlomo Shein. Myodovnik portrays him as such: "Some forty years ago, he was a tall man with a long neck, a deaf man, and he remembers him as a singer at weddings of gvir R' Shlomo Sheyn in Bendin (circa 1887), where Shtrudler also participated in a production of Goldfaden's "Ahasuerus." According to Myodovnik's portrayal ,Shtrudler, forty and some years. "He was a tall man with a long neck, a deaf man and he had a broken baritone voice."

According to Jacob Mestel, who often had attended Shtrudler's "gala productions" in the wine cellars in Zlotshev and Lemberg, Shtrudler was never deaf -- perhaps he was only hard of hearing. Myodovnik may have been mistaken for the fact that he often used to often place pigeons in his very population singing and acting monologue, "Der reyzender." Also very popular was Shtrudler's "The German and the Duet," "The Tailor and the Shoemaker." Shtrudler had (as the most contemporary folksinger) suffered from a head cold, and this probably caused Myodovnik's characterization about Shtrudler's broken baritone voice.

Tsegrovski recalls that Shtrudler was a very comical figure. The Chasids were noisy crowds, when he used to come to a town, strengthening Jews. Performing in Stanislowow, Shtrudler discovered Schilling there and accepted him into his troupe.

According to the actor Julius Gutman, Shtrudler has been uncompromising in songs. As he used to put on makeup and change in the witness of the audience, you could count on him for a "Broder Singer."

B. Tsegrovski portrays him as such:

"Next to Velvl Zbarzher and Berl Broder, Shtrudler was one of the most popular types in the Yiddish actor world from Galicia, Hungary and Romania. There is not a small town or even a village within the largest Jewish communities in the mentioned three countries, where Shtrudler would not have been singing his couplets and showing his dances. Thus he was generally known a generation ago and had great success with his performances. With over fifty years (written 1930), the Yiddish theatre in Galicia was stilll almost unknown. That's why in certain Yiddish pubs you could find companies of "Broder Singers." From one of these comanies was heard Chona Shtrudler, and together with him there performed Berl Broder, Chaim Shmuel Lukatsher, Moshe Kanarek and Leon Mandeltort. They brought down to Lemberg Chaim Bendl, who had a concession on "German-Yiddish singing-plays."

The company appeared in Bombach's pub, where a crowd from the Jewish quarter gathered every evening for a cup of beer. For them the "Broder Singers" showed their art. Who did not come to drink wanted to see the Yiddish theatre played and paid three greitzer [sp] for their entrance fee. After each number the actor went around with a plate to collect the coins, and thus he made a living. There wasn't any stage in the pub, naturally there wasn't any. The entire "stage" consisted of a table with two candles, on which the performer would sing their couplets and songs or do their dances. They say that when children used to besiege the "art table," Shtrudler used to scold them: "Rats, go away from the stage!"

Often they played things according to a certain repertoire that consisted of "Di Bobe Yakhne," "Der shuster als rebbe," "Godl," "Der krokever, oder, Der khazn untern tish," and others. The author of all the plays is unknown, and as it is called, [was] a certain (Israel) Gradner. In those plays there were mixed in songs from Velvl Zbarzher, Goldfdaden, Eliakum Zunser et al. Some of the time there were also played certain acts from Goldfaden and Hurwitz.

Shtrudler alone had made himself famous in the role in the "Bobe Yakhne." He alone played the role of the bobe [grandmother]. This type of "old father" he conveyed so realistically that everyone who still remembers it, in particular professional actors, hoped that he showed a great mastery and acting talent. In particular, Strudler made himself famous with these folk songs: "Dos oyg," "Di eyzenban," and "Di damf-shif" by Eliakum Zunser. The music to the songs was composed by the "Broder Singers" alone."

M.E. from Julius Gutman, and Sh.E. from Jacob Mestel.

• "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre," New York, 1931, Vol. 1, p. 235.

• F. Vitkover -- Dos lebn un shtarbn fun dem Yidishn aktyorn Chone Shtrudler, "Morgn," Lemberg, 13 December 1930.

• Y. Yakobovski -- Geshtorbn der letster maykaner fun der "Bobe Yakhns tsaytn," "Moment," Warsaw, 16 December 1930.

• B. Tsegravski -- Der letste maykaner fun di "Broder Zinger," "Haynt," Warsaw, 28 December 1930.