Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in upstate New York that were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s.[1]
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The name comes from borscht, a soup that is popular in many Central and Eastern European countries and was brought from these regions by Slavic and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants to the United States, where it remains a popular dish in these ethnic communities as well.
The soup is of Ukrainian origin, made with beetroot as the main ingredient giving it a deep reddish-purple color.[2]
Borscht Belt hotels, bungalow colonies, summer camps, and קאָכן אַלאָנעס kuchaleyns (a Yiddish name for self-catered boarding houses, literally, "cook-alones") were frequented by middle and working class Jewish New Yorkers, mostly Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe and their children and grandchildren, particularly in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Because of this, the area was also nicknamed the Jewish Alps and "Solomon County" (a modification of Sullivan County), by many people who visited there. Well-known resorts of the area included Brickman's, Brown's, The Concord, Friar Tuck Inn, Gibber's, Gilbert's, Grossinger's, Granit, the Heiden Hotel, Irvington, Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club, the Nevele, The Laurels Hotel and Country Club, The Pines Resort, Raleigh, the Overlook, the Tamarack Lodge, Stevensville and the Windsor.
Two of the larger hotels in High View (just north of Bloomingburg) were Shawanga Lodge and the Overlook. One of the high points of Shawanga Lodge's existence came in 1959, when it was the site of a conference of scientists researching laser beams. The conference marked the start of serious research into lasers.[3] The hotel burned to the ground in 1973.[4] Lasers played no role in the fire.
The Overlook still remains in a different form, no longer functioning as it was in its heyday. The Overlook had entertainment and summer lodging for many years through the late 1960s and was operated by the Schrier family. It included a main building and about 50 other bungalows, plus a five-unit cottage just across the street.
Some of these hotels originated from farms that were established by immigrant Jews in the early part of the 20th century.
Despite the upgrade of old travel routes such as the original New York State Route 17 (superseded by an express highway of the same name, now in the midst of an upgrade to Interstate 86), the area declined as a travel destination. What was left was a veritable museum of abandoned or decaying travel-related businesses from the Borscht Belt's heyday. The post-World War II decline of the area coincided with the increase of air travel. When families could go to more far-off destinations such as Hawaii, the Caribbean, and even Europe for the same cost as going to the Catskills, the new destinations began to win out.
As early as 1965, declines at many Catskills resorts were evident, as the older, smaller Borscht Belt hotels such as Youngs Gap and the Ambassador rapidly lost patronage and closed by the end of the 1960s, and the 1970s took a toll on more sophisticated establishments such as the Flagler and The Laurels.[5] The 1980s onward were no kinder to the area, Grossinger's being the largest casualty; it closed in 1985 or 1986, and the property (except the country club, still active) was abruptly abandoned by new owners midway through a demolition and rebuilding of the old resort. Any benefit gained by Grossinger's largest historic rival (and the largest of all the Borscht Belt resorts), the Concord, would be ephemeral, as the latter filed for bankruptcy in 1997 and closed a year later.
In 1987, New York's mayor Ed Koch proposed buying the Gibber Hotel in Kiamesha Lake to house the homeless. The idea was opposed by local officials.[6] The hotel instead became a religious school, like many old hotels in the Catskills.[7]
Today the region is a summer home for many Orthodox Jewish families, primarily from the New York metropolitan area. It has many summer homes and bungalow colonies (including many of the historic colonies), as well as year-round dwellers. It even has its own year-round branch of the Orthodox Jewish volunteer emergency medical service Hatzolah. A few resorts remain in the region, though not many associated with the Borscht Belt Prime (including Kutsher's Hotel, Villa Roma, Soyuzivka, a Ukrainian cultural resort, and the Skazka, Xenia, and Hotel Pine resorts, which are Russian cultural resorts.[8][9][10]
Plans are now in place by those who purchased former Borscht Belt resorts Concord Resort Hotel and Grossinger's, for example, to work with Native Americans in an attempt to bring gambling to the region. Because the Borscht Belt's prime has long passed and many of the resorts are abandoned, developers feel that this is the only way to revitalize the region to the popularity it once had by attracting guests to world-class casinos and resorts such as the ones in New Jersey and Connecticut. However, large-scale casino plans have not come to fruition.
The Heiden Hotel in South Fallsburg, which was the location of the movie Sweet Lorraine starring Maureen Stapleton, was destroyed by fire in May 2008.[11]
The Stevensville Hotel in Swan Lake, which was owned by the family of accused Bernard Madoff accomplice David G. Friehling, has reopened as the Swan Lake Resort Hotel.[12][13]
The former Homowack Lodge in Phillipsport was converted into a summer camp for Hassidic girls. Officials of the state Department of Health ordered the property evacuated in July 2009, citing health and safety violations.[14]
Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club has hosted the United States edition of the music festival All Tomorrow's Parties in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
The Granite currently operates as the Hudson Valley Resort.[15]
The tradition of Borscht Belt entertainment started in the early 20th century with the indoor and outdoor theaters constructed on a 40 acre (16-hectare) tract in Hunter, New York, by Yiddish theater star Boris Thomashefsky.
Comedians who got their start or regularly performed in Borscht Belt resorts include:
Borscht Belt humor refers to the rapid-fire, often self-deprecating style common to many of these performers and writers. Typical themes include
Some—but not all—of the modern Borscht Belt comedians, such as Don Rickles and Joan Rivers, referred openly to Jews and anti-Semitism.
Also seen regularly at these Catskills resorts were a large number of singers, dancers, musicians, and other variety acts including:
These resorts have been the setting for movies such as Dirty Dancing, Sweet Lorraine, and A Walk on the Moon.
Characters inspired by Borscht Belt comics include Billy Crystal's Buddy Young Jr. from Mr. Saturday Night and Robert Smigel's Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.
The early 20th-century Jewish experience of vacationing in the Catskills was recounted in the graphic short story "Cookalein" by Will Eisner. The story appears in Eisner's collection A Contract with God.
The novel Marjorie Morningstar was about the same era and locale, but the corresponding film was actually made in the Adirondacks, rather than the Catskills.
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