I did a major research paper on klezmer years ago and fell in love with the pitches, rhythms, inflections, and liveliness of it. I was just watching a video on youtube about Sephardic/Mizrachi music from Iran, and I was surprised by how similar it is to klezmer. Of course there are many differences also, but it seems to me that there are more similarities than there should be given how far Iran is (where this music is from) and the Pale of Settlement (where klezmer originated, mostly).
Here is the link to the video if you're interested: