Located halfway between New York City and Albany, at the juncture of the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains, the village of Ellenville is neither large nor distinguished, but it was once known to the many Jewish families who spent their summers in the area. It is now also home to the Borscht Belt Museum, whose name, Andrew Silow-Carroll writes, comes from the term for
the region in upstate New York that flourished as a Jewish getaway from the early 20th century to the 1970s. And while the Catskills were about many things, they were also about two big things: food and humor. Both were doled out in abundance: heaps of mostly Ashkenazi cuisine, and gobs of entertainment rooted in Yiddish and an urban attitude that learned to let loose in the mountain air.
That humor became as closely identified with “the mountains” as the food. A portrait of Danny Kaye is featured on a wall of “Legacies.” It recalls that the Jewish comic actor, like a slew of other comedians, started as a “tummler” in the Catskills—a combination emcee and social director whose job it was . . . to keep guests from heading home to the Bronx on rainy days.
More about: American Jewish History, Borscht Belt, Comedy