I saw the gymnast — and his wife — years later at a Yiddishe Cup concert.\u00a0 I said to the wife, \u201cYour husband was a star!\u201d\u00a0 She didn\u2019t seem to know that.<\/p>\n
The great Reed Klein.\u00a0 He went on to the Ohio State\u00a0 gymnastics team.\u00a0 Reed was the only gymnast in our high school.\u00a0 There was no team. \u00a0Reed was an iron man and one small tough Jew.\u00a0 Five-foot-five, max.<\/p>\n
The other<\/strong><\/span> small tough Jews were Harry Kramer and Steve Gold.\u00a0 They wrestled in very low weight classes, like 93 pounds and 103 pounds in junior high.<\/p>\n Small Jewish wrestlers — as a classification — are still with us.\u00a0 The Cleveland Jewish News<\/em> ran an article titled \u201cGross, Jacober, Harris place in state mat meet.\u201d\u00a0 The boys are Beachwood High\u2019s 112-, 130- and 125-pound wrestlers.<\/p>\n My son Jack wrestled in \u00a0middle school.\u00a0 The matches were so primal: two or three minutes of \u00a0animal behavior in a stinky windowless wrestling room.\u00a0 Tough and scary.\u00a0 And I was just watching.<\/p>\n My wife<\/strong><\/span> dated a wrestler in high school.<\/p>\n Maybe I should have wrestled.<\/p>\n It never entered my mind.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like singlets. \u00a0I don\u2019t like armpits \u2013 other guys\u2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like headlocks, unless Bobo Brazil is giving one to Lord Layton, and it’s 1960.<\/p>\n \u00a0——-<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>yideo below, “Stratton of Judea,” is from the Klezmer Guy live show.\u00a0 The clip is about my father changing his last name.\u00a0\u00a0 One of my better efforts. The text <\/span><\/a>— but not the video — was posted here Sept. 16, 2009.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/wrestle.jpg\" "\\"wrestle\\"")
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