Borscht Belt


The Borscht Belt, or Yiddish Alps, is a region of the northeastern United States of America that had summer resorts catering to American Jewish vacationers, especially residents of New York City. The resorts, most later defunct, were located in the southern foothills of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York, bordering the northern edges of the New York metropolitan area.

A 2019 review of the history is more specific: "in its heyday, as many as 500 resorts catered to guests of various incomes." These resorts, as well as the Borscht Belt bungalow colonies, were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s. By the late 1950s, many began closing, with most gone by the 1970s, but some major resorts continued to operate, a few into the 2010s.

Name

The name comes from borscht, a soup of Ukrainian origin, made with beets as the main ingredient, giving it a deep reddish-purple color, that is popular in many Central and Eastern European countries and brought by Ashkenazi Jewish and Slavic immigrants to the United States. The alliterative name was coined by Abel Green, editor of Variety starting in 1933, and is a play on existing colloquial names for other American regions, such as the Bible Belt and Rust Belt. An alternate name, the Yiddish Alps, was used by Larry King and is satirical: a classic example of borscht belt humor.

History

After the expansion of the railway system including the tracks Ontario and Western as well as the Ulster and Delaware Railroad, the area of the Catskill Mountains became a tourist destination because of the beauty of the landscape, which impressed the painters of American Romanticism, and because of the rising popularity of fly fishing in its trout-rich rivers. As New York City streets would bake in the summer and air-conditioning was not yet available, people flocked to the Catskills.
In the early 1900s, some hotels' and resorts' advertisements refused to accept Jews and indicated "No Hebrews or Consumptives" in their ads. This discrimination led to a need for alternative lodging that would readily accept Jewish families as guests. Visits to the area by Jewish families were already underway "as early as the 1890s... Tannersville... was 'a great resort of our Israelite '... from the 1920s on hundreds of hotels." The larger hotels provided "Friday night and holiday services as well as kosher cooking", thus supporting religious families to take a vacation in accordance to their customs.

Rise

Borscht Belt hotels, bungalow colonies, summer camps, and kuchaleyns flourished. The bungalows usually included "a kitchen/living room/dinette, one bedroom, and a screened porch" with entertainment at the communal center, called the casino, being simple: bingo or a movie. The kuchaleyns were often visited by lower middle-class and working-class Jewish New Yorkers. Because of the many Jewish guests, this area was nicknamed the Yiddish Alps or Solomon County, a malapropism of Sullivan County, by many people who visited there.
A sufficient choice of Jewish cuisine was an important feature of the hotels in the Borscht Belt, and "too much was not enough" developed as a notion. Jonathan Sarna wrote: "To understand the emphasis on food, one has to understand hunger. Immigrants had memories of hunger, and in the Catskills, the food seemed limitless." The singles scene was also important; many hotels hired young male college students to attract single girls of a similar age. One book on the era contended that "the Catskills became one great marriage broker."
Borscht Belt resorts stood in towns such as Liberty, Fallsburg, Mamakating, Thompson, Bethel and Rockland in Sullivan County as well as Wawarsing and Rochester in Ulster County. Such resorts included Avon Lodge, Brickman's, Brown's, Butler Lodge, The Concord, Grossinger's, Granit, the Heiden Hotel, Irvington, Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club, the Nevele, Friar Tuck Inn, the Laurels Hotel and Country Club, the Pines Resort, Raleigh Hotel, the Overlook, the Tamarack Lodge, Shady Nook Hotel and Country Club, Stevensville, Stier's Hotel, and the Windsor. Some of these hotels originated from farms that Jewish immigrants had established in the early part of the 20th century.
Two of the larger hotels in High View, just north of Bloomingburg, were the 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. The hotel burned to the ground in 1973. The Overlook, which offered rooms in the main building as well as bungalows, spiced up with entertainment, was operated by the Schrier family.

Decline

The Borscht Belt reached its peak in the 1950s and 60s with over 500 resorts, 50,000 bungalows, and 1,000 rooming houses. By the late 1960s, the start of a decline was apparent. "Railways began cutting service to the area, the popularity of air travel increased, and a younger generation of Jewish-Americans chose other leisure destinations." A secondary factor was that "anti-Semitism declined, so Jews could go other places." Official Sullivan County historian John Conway blames the decline on "the three ‘A’s: air conditioning, assimilation, and airfare".
Access to the area improved with the opening of the George Washington Bridge and upgrade of old travel routes such as old New York State Route 17. On the other hand, passenger train access ended with the September 1953 termination of passenger trains on the Ontario and Western Railway mainline from Roscoe at the northern edge of Sullivan County, through the Borscht Belt, to Weehawken, New Jersey. A 1940 vacation travel guide published by the railroad listed hundreds of establishments that were situated at or near the railway's stations.
In 1941, the New York Central ceased running passenger trains on its Catskill Mountain Branch. The area suffered as a travel destination in the late 1950s and especially by the 1960s. Another source confirms that "cheap air travel suddenly allowed a new generation to visit more exotic and warmer destinations." More women remained in the workforce after marriage and could not take off for the entire summer to relocate to the Catskills.
A Times of Israel article specifies that "the bungalow colonies were the first to go under, followed by the smaller hotels. The glitziest ones hung on the longest" with some continuing to operate in the 1980s and even in the 1990s. Bungalow colonies fell into disrepair or many of the nicer ones have been converted into a housing co-op. The Concord Resort Hotel, which outlasted most other resorts, went bankrupt in 1997 but survived until 1998 and was subsequently demolished for a possible casino site. By the early 1960s, some 25 to 30 percent of Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel visitors were not Jewish; nevertheless it closed in 1986.
The Stevensville Hotel in Swan Lake was located on the shores of an artificial reservoir of the West Branch Mongaup River which fed a tannery since the 1840s. It was commissioned in 1924 and managed by the Dinnerstein and Friehling families until around 1990.
It reopened as Swan Lake Resort Hotel in 1999 offering Asian cuisine plus Tennis & Golf facilities and survived until 2007.
In 2015, the ultra-Orthodox Congregation Iched Anash bought the property for $2.2 million and began to operate the Satmar Boys Camp, a religious summer school.
In 1987, New York City mayor Ed Koch proposed buying the Gibber Hotel in Kiamesha Lake to house the homeless. The idea was opposed by local officials and the hotel instead became the religious school Yeshiva Viznitz.
The Granit Hotel and Country Club, located in Kerhonkson, boasted many amenities, including a golf course. It closed in 2015 and was renovated and turned into the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, which closed in 2018. The property was sold in May 2019 to Hudson Valley Holding Co. LLC. The company did not announce its plans for the hotel.

21st century

As of the 2010s, the region was a summer home for many Orthodox Jewish families. Some of the hotels have been converted into rehab centers, meditation centers or Orthodox Jewish hotels and resorts. The former Homowack Lodge in Phillipsport was converted into a summer camp for Hasidic girls. Officials of the state Department of Health ordered the property evacuated in July 2009, citing health and safety violations. The camp owners initially resisted, but left for good that August. The property was unoccupied for many years and the main lodge burned down in 2023. The Flagler Hotel, Nemerson, Schenk's and Windsor Hotels in South Fallsburg, and the Stevensville Hotel in Swan Lake, were converted into Jewish religious summer camps.
In Fleischmanns, Oppenheimer's Regis Hotel serves an Orthodox clientele in a building dating back to the heyday of the Borscht Belt.
In 1984, the Catskills division of Hatzalah was founded which covers the Borscht Belt and served the needs of a growing Orthodox clientele. As of 2020 a volunteer force of 450 rescue workers and paramedics is operating a fleet of 18 ambulances. Although financially independent from the other chapters, it cooperates in day-to-day business with Central Hatzalah of NYC as the 17. neighborhood and with State Forces.
Many Buddhist and Hindu retreat centers have been constructed on the land or in the restored buildings of former camps or resorts to serve adherents in New York City, the establishment of which has then drawn even more temples and centers to the area. This led to the coining of the nicknames "Buddha Belt," "Bhajan Belt" and "Buddhist Belt" to refer to the area's revival.
Despite the region's decline as a cultural epicenter, a handful of traveling acts, such as the Doox of Yale, a Yale University acappella group, continued to regularly tour the Borscht Belt as recently as 2015.
On August 7, 2025, the Yamim Ba’im music festival, starring Orthodox Israeli superstar Ishay Ribo, took place at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the same site as the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
Between 2013 and 2018, the decaying state of the abandoned resorts was captured by several ruins photographers:
  • Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel; the Grossinger's complex partially was demolished in 2018 and a new owner planned to build a hotel, homes and other amenities. A remaining structure on the property was destroyed by fire in August 2022.
  • Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club; a wellness club was built on the site and opened in June 2018. The original Kutcher's nightclub is all that remains of the original hotel. The Kutcher's Hotel front electric sign was donated to the Sullivan County Historical Museum.
  • The Pines Hotel closed in 1998. The dilapidated main building and surrounding structures remained in a state of decay until it was destroyed in a fire in June 2023. The Pines Hotel golf course has been converted into a Jewish religious summer camp.
  • The former Gilbert's Hotel and Brickman Hotel are now part of the Siddha Yoga SYDA complex. A gift shop remains open at the sites, which are not in current active use.
  • Nevele Grand Hotel
  • The Vegetarian Hotel
  • White Lake Mansion House
  • Homowack Lodge
  • Lesser Lodge
  • Tamarack Lodge
  • Concord Resort Hotel. In February 2018, Resorts World Catskills opened on the site of the old hotel.
  • Shawanga Lodge