Drake names club for Jewish grandparents
Exclusive ‘post-game destination’ located at Toronto sports arena
Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.
Drake fans know him as the teen heartthrob from “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and the wildly successful rapper credited with introducing the term “YOLO” into youth culture. However, not all are aware that he is also a devoted grandson to his Jewish maternal grandparents, Evelyn and Rueben Sher.
Now the writing is literally on the wall when it comes to Drake’s love for his bubbe and and zaide. The singer has just opened a members-only club named for his grandparents at the Air Canada Center, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors.
The Sher Club, a 370-square-meter space, will be open during all games played at the arena. According to the club’s designer, Ferris Rafauli, it was designed for the “ultimate sports fanatics” like Drake, and is the “ultimate pre- and post-game destination.”
Drake (whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham) was especially close with his bubbe. He “shared a deep bond with his mother’s mom,” according to a piece published by MTV when Sher died in 2012. In fact, Drake has honored his grandmother by including lyrics either about her or addressing her in a number of his songs.
In “Look What You’ve Done,” he included a recording he made of his grandmother speaking to him from the nursing home in which she lived at the end of her life.
“All I can say, Aubrey, is I remember the good times we had together and the times I used to look after you and I still have wonderful feelings about that,” she said. “So, God bless you, and I hope I’ll see you.”
The rapper announced the opening of the Sher club by posting a photo of himself standing next to the sign at its entrance on Instagram.
The following dedication appears beneath the image: “Rest in peace to my grandparents Rueben and Evelyn Sher. My grandmother was the first person to ever play catch with me and my grandfather was the biggest sports fan in the world. I opened this club in the memory of both of you.”
Watch a young Drake introduce his bubbe, who was at the time still living together with him and his mother, to his fans:
