Through fiction, memoir, music, photography, and art, In the Catskills highlights the Catskills experience over a century and assesses its continuing impact on American music, comedy, food, culture, and religion. It features selections from such fiction writers as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Herman Wouk, Allegra Goodman and Vivian Gornick; and original contributions from historians, sociologists, and scholars of American and Jewish culture that trace the history of the region, the rise of hotels and bungalow colonies, the wonderful flavors of food and entertainment, and distinctive forms of Jewish religion found in the Mountains.
What was life--the work, the play, the food, the romance--like at Catskills Mountains resorts? These very personal recollections capture the special sense of community and real sense of freedom that developed. Far from the welter of the city, Jewish families learned to vacation and enjoy themselves, to savor the social mobility and cultural space the resorts afforded, and to nourish their culinary and comic traditions. From "Bingo by the Bungalow" by Thane Rosenbaum to "Young Workers in the Hotels" by Phil Brown to "Shoot the Shtrudel to Me Yudel" by Henry Foner, this charming anthology captures an era that has had enormous impact on the Jewish experience and American culture as a whole.
"Whenever I speak about the Catskills," observes editor Phil Brown, "I am struck by the strength of people's desire to relive their experiences in the Mountains." If you've visited the Catskills yourself, or heard stories from your parents or grandparents, or are just interested in this extraordinary time and place, pack your bags and prepare to enjoy your stay In the Catskills.
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part 1: History
- Introduction
- Sleeping in My Parents’ Hotel: The End of a Century of the Jewish Catskills -Phil Brown
- Jewish Farmers of the Catskills -Abraham Lavender and Clarence Steinberg
- Hotels and the Holocaust -Reuben Wallenrod
- The Catskills at the End of World War II -Martin Boris
- PArt 2: Boarding House, Bungalow, and Kuchalayn Life
- Introduction
- The Yearning Heifer -Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Grine Felder—A Place in the Country -Martin Boris
- Bingo by the Bungalow -Thane Rosenbaum
- Bungalow Colony Life -Irwin Richman
- Bungalow Stories -Arthur Tanney
- Part 3. Hotel Life
- Introduction
- Dinner at the Rigi Kulm House -Abraham Cahan
- Old Stock -Hortense Calisher
- Young Workers in the Hotels -Phil Brown
- The Pool -Eileen Pollack
- Growing Up at Grossinger’s -Tania Grossinger
- Five and Three House -Sidney Offit
- Reflections on the Delmar Hotel and the Demise of the Catskills -Jerry A. Jacobs
- Part 4: Entertainment
- Introduction
- Comics, Singers, and Tummlers -Joey Adams (with Henry Tobias)
- The Social Director at the Adult Summer Camp -Moss Hart
- The Casino -Harvey Jacobs
- The Fine Art of Mountain Tummling -Joyce Wadler
- Yener Welt
- Shoot the Shtrudel to Me, Yudel! (1941) -Words and music by Henry Foner
- Part 5: Romance
- Introduction
- Miss Tevkin -Abraham Cahan
- Forbidden Fruit -Harvey Jacobs
- Marjorie at South Wind -Herman Wouk
- Amy Lourie -Terry Kay
- Part 6: Religion
- Introduction
- Bungalow Summer:The Catskills, New York -Robert Eisenberg
- The Shul in Kaaterskill Falls -Allegra Goodman
- Part 7: Food
- Introduction
- Eating at the Hotel -Sara Sandberg
- The Catskills Remembered -Vivian Gornick
- Bungalow -Elizabeth Ehrlich
- Appendices: Links to More Sources
- Annotated Bibliography
- Hotels of the Catskills
- Bungalow Colonies of the Catskills
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