Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

THE GUNS OF KLEZMER

by Bert Stratton

 
Violinist Yale Strom of San Diego led a terrific trad klezmer band at a recent Cain Park concert in Cleveland Heights. Then a Michigan bar band followed, playing klez-infused jazz improvisation. But neither was the highlight.

The highlight was when the emcee announced a raffle for a Glock gun. The audience — approximately 75  mostly elderly Jews — heard a Glock-shpiel.

Here (see below) is pretty much what the emcee said. [This is from a Facebook post, edited for clarity and length.] This is not fiction:

SAVE THE “CONCERT IN THE PARK” FUNDRAISER

July 13  1-5 pm
The Parma Armory
5301 Houserman Rd.
Parma OH

$40 per ticket. Each ticket gets you in the drawing for a chance to win a new Glock 9 mm pistol.

Only 50 tickets will be sold!!!

Shooting lanes open to ticket holders only.

Don’t have your own gun? You can rent one at the armory.

The Workmen’s Circle Educational Center of Ohio wants to thank you for your donation to help save the Concert in the Park.

To win the firearm you must pass the FFL background check.

If the winner fails the background check, another name will be drawn!!!

Thank you for your donation to help save the klezmer Concert in the Park.

3 comments

1 Ari Davidow { 07.09.25 at 9:57 am }

I’m not a big traditionalist, but I really don’t see a future for glockenspiels in klezmer.

2 Steve { 07.09.25 at 10:47 am }

“I’m not a big traditionalist, but I really don’t see a future for glockenspiels in klezmer.”

Delicious. Thanks.

3 Steve { 07.09.25 at 10:52 am }

Seriously, though, something’s wrong with this picture. Or wrong with the neighborhood. I’m not the stereotypical gun-hating Jew. I have two Glocks (and two other pistols and a shotgun and am retired from the Army) and believe self-defense is far better than police protection. But raffling off a pistol? Something doesn’t feel right.

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