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 YIDDISHE CUP EXPERIENCE
IS HORRIBLE

by Bert Stratton

Tacky tourist attractions are popping up near the stellar Challah Fame. The latest shtick dreck is the Yiddishe Cup Experience, in the old Beef Corral at Cedar Center, South Euclid, Ohio.

shtick Dreck tour yiddishe cup experience

Sombuddy pleaz open ah vindah!

Don’t go.  Repeat, don’t go. Here’s what you’ll “miss”:

1. The first Jewish traffic light (a semaphore actually), from Kinsman Road, 1925. The semaphore has matzo, knish, and seltzer symbols instead of red, yellow and green.  The semaphore was taken down in 1926 because the Italians couldn’t tell matzo from knishes.

2. Theodore Bikel and Mickey Katz hand puppets. Who made these?  [Josh Dolgin of Canada.]

3. The “Jewish Underground Railroad Experience.”  A sandbox. Supposed to be the Sinai.

5. A “Chagall” mural by Anonymous, scraped off the wall from Mira’s Cafe, Mandel JCC, Beachwood, Ohio.

6. A video clip from Harley Son of David, a movie about Jewish motorcyclists.  Music by Yiddishe Cup.

7. Klezmer-themed postage stamps from Lichtenstein and Malaysia. Musicians on the stamps include Marcel Salomon, Adrianne Greenbaum and Moshe Berlin.

8. A matchbook from Solomon’s restaurant, Cedar Center, 1966.

9. Itchy the Squirrel, an animatron who sings “Oyfn Pripetchik.”  (Poor fidelity, but surprisingly good Yiddish.)

10. Shtetl Avenue — a recreation of 1920s East 105th Street, complete with midwives, klezmer bands, appetizing shops and candy stores.   Staffed by teen volunteers from Agnon School.

challah fameThe place is horrible. Don’t go.  Go to The Challah Fame.

(Yiddishe Cup, the band, is not affiliated with the Yiddishe Cup Experience.  Again: Yiddishe Cup, the band, is not affiliated with the Yiddishe Cup Experience)

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5 comments

1 Irwin Weinberger { 07.16.14 at 9:12 am }

Thanks for the heads up, Bert. I was planning to take my family on our Cleveland vacation to the Yiddishe Cup Experience this summer. Everyone has been talking about it. Now I’m thinking twice. The admission is cheaper than the Challah Fame though. On second thought, we might go after all, since my grandkids really love puppets.

2 Ted { 07.16.14 at 9:46 am }

I couldn’t read this.

3 Eric { 07.16.14 at 10:05 am }

Great stuff. Any group discounts available?

4 Ken G. { 07.16.14 at 12:08 pm }

Glad to see that Roadside Architecture being used once again. And such a good use, too! If there’s any spillover in the museum-quality items, they can go in the still-empty KFC on S. Taylor in U Heights. Both communities can use a new infusion of Judaica and Yiddishkeit after all the abandonment.

5 marc { 07.16.14 at 3:28 pm }

I have a friend from Providence RI who is spending this month within Cleveland Heights.

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