Famous New York Area Opened Vacationing and Play to the Entire Jewish Community
In the 21st century, when we hear about the Catskills, it’s typically from someone who just went there on a honeymoon, or from a friend who went there for the weekend to enjoy a little back-to-nature time. The area, located about an hour and a half north of New York City, just west of the Hudson River, is currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts, popular for its scenic peaks and waterfalls, and for some of the best fly-fishing in the area. But the Catskills played a transformative role in the lives of many Jewish people born or living in the last 100 years, providing an environment where vacationing, play and relaxation were available without fear of discrimination.
The Early History of the Catskills as a Vacation Destination
The Catskills have long been recognized as a place of singular natural beauty. As early as the 1820s, wealthy Americans sought refuge there from the growing clatter and cacophony of the cities. Artist Thomas Cole viewed it as a mystical place, a romantic wilderness of stately forests and rushing rivers. In 1824, the opening of the Catskill Mountain House established the Catskills as a destination for the wealthy elite. As access to the area increased through the expansion of railroad and steamboat lines, it became a popular vacation area for many of New York City’s upper middle class.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, virtually all of the resorts in the area refused to accept Jewish lodgers. This discrimination remained widespread into the 20th century, with many resorts and hotels advertising that “no Hebrews” would be allowed to stay.
Nonetheless, the area continued to draw Jewish travelers, fueling a need for alternative lodging. Initially, many of the local Jewish farmers made lodging available. Not long after that, other forms of lodging arose for Jewish patrons, including bungalow colonies, summer camps and kuchaleyns, or self-catered boarding houses. In fact, many of what would become iconic Jewish resorts in the mid-1900s, such as Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel and Kutsher’s Country Club, began as farming operations that took in summer boarders. It’s important to note, though, that before many of the storied resorts of the so-called “Borscht Belt,” there were a handful of existing Gentile-owned resorts, such as the Fairmont and the Grand View, that accepted Jewish patrons.
It’s also important to understand that, while some of the farmers who helped create the early Borscht Belt actually went to the area to farm (without much success), some bought farmland with the goal of creating a lodging space for Jewish vacationers. Brothers Max and Louis Kutsher, tailors on New York City’s Lower East Side, bought a large farmhouse near Monticello in 1907, and quickly began renting rooms to Jewish travelers. Louis’s son, Milton, took over the farm after returning from World War II and opened a big hotel in 1947, with no restrictions imposed on Jewish guests. The Kutsher eventually added a golf course, an ice rink, pools and lake beaches.
The Heyday of the Borscht Belt
With the early success of Kutsher’s and Grossinger’s, others soon followed. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were as many as 500 large resorts in the Catskills that either catered to or were fully open to Jewish patrons. In addition, travelers could stay at one of 50,000 bungalows or approximately 1,000 rooming houses.
The resorts were more than just a place to sleep, though. Most offered kosher dining and many had nightclubs or other forms of entertainment. In fact, the Catskills became the proving ground for some of the most famous entertainers of the 20th century. In the early days, such legends as Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, Milton Berle, Woody Allen and Rodney Dangerfield honed their standup routines there. Barbra Streisand got her start there and such musical luminaries as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong all performed regularly in the Jewish resorts in the Catskills.
The Catskills offered an escape from the discrimination that many Jewish people of the early and mid-20th century found to be pervasive in their lives. The opportunities they had at the Borscht Belt resorts to play tennis and golf, and to dine at fine restaurants, gave working-class and middle-class Jewish families a taste of the American dream, ultimately spawning societal changes that made such resorts less necessary. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Catskills no longer held the same appeal to Jewish travelers, who could now stay at posh resorts across the country and around the world.
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