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The first-ever Borscht Belt Festival celebrates a bygone Jewish era
(New York Jewish Week) — After a dozen-plus years in the making, the Catskills Borscht Belt museum is set to open in 2025. But for those who can’t wait another two years, the museum is launching a festival to honor the history and culture of the “Jewish Alps” this summer.
The first-ever Borscht Belt Fest will debut on July 29 in Ellenville, New York, about 90 miles from Manhattan.
The one-day festival will pay tribute to the legacy of the Borscht Belt — the colloquial name for the once-ubiquitous resorts and bungalow colonies in parts of Sullivan, Ulster and Orange counties that catered to Jewish families — and its influence on modern American culture. On the lineup are comedy shows, workshops, lectures, exhibits, film screenings and a street fair with plenty of entertainment and Jewish food.
With a few years before the museum opens, the festival is “a way for us to start cultivating a really broad audience for this new cultural institution,” Andrew Jacobs, president of Catskills Borscht Belt Museum’s board of directors and a reporter for The New York Times, told the New York Jewish Week.
The museum will be located in an old bank, pictured above, at 90 Canal Street in Ellenville, New York. (Catskills Borscht Belt Museum)
The timing for the festival and subsequent museum opening, noted Jacobs, is ideal: “We’re tapping into this zeitgeist moment,” he said, pointing to the Amazon Prime hit “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and how it revived interest in the Catskills and its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s.
“Also there’s a sense that this time in history has been unacknowledged, underappreciated nd hasn’t gotten its due,” Jacobs added. “And so I think there’s a sense among people who lived it, or whose parents lived it, like, ‘I want this to be acknowledged, I want it to be honored and celebrated, and I want to be part of that.’”
Like the festival, the forthcoming Borscht Belt Museum will also be in Ellenville, located in a building that was once home to Home National Bank — one of the first banks to lend money to Jewish hotel owners in the 1920s. Exhibits and activities will include archival film and audio, lectures, interactive activities and workshops.
Back in the day, from roughly the 1900s to the 1970s, Route 17, then better known as “The Quickway,” was packed during the summer months with New York Jews making their exodus from the crowded city to the Catskill Mountains. Named after the Ashkenazi beet soup, the Borscht Belt drew travelers upstate for leisure, Yiddish culture, food and entertainment. Many legendary Jewish comedians performed early in their careers at Catskills resorts, including Jackie Mason, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers and Jerry Seinfeld.
Of course, Jews also came to the Catskills because they were barred from vacationing at many other popular locales — and therefore they created a vacationland of their own, packing Jewish-owned resorts like Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel and Kutsher’s Hotel and Country Club.
“These institutions shaped American Jewish culture, enabling Jews to become more American while at the same time introducing the American public to immigrant Jewish culture,” according to the Catskills Institute, an organization at Northeastern University promoting research and education about the region and the era.
By the late 1960s, however, with the rise of air travel, more resorts allowing Jews and younger generations choosing other vacation destinations, the lure of the Catskills began to dim. By the 1980s, most resorts and hotels that populated the Borscht Belt were defunct.
The Borscht Belt Festival aims, however briefly, to revive the traditions and culture of the Catskills’ golden age. With a focus on comedy, the festival’s events include “The Borscht Belt Classic,” a homage to family-friendly Catskills comedy, and a talk with writers Alan Zweibel and Bill Scheft about their experiences writing and performing stand-up comedy in the mountains.
Another comedy performance is Luci Pohl’s “Immigrant Jam,” which pays tribute to immigrant culture and experiences — Pohl herself is a Jewish immigrant from Germany — and a standup comedy showcase presented by the Manhattan club the Comedy Cellar.
Pohl, who is a member of the festival’s advisory board, said that rather than choosing a big headliner, the organizers wanted to focus on comedians they can’t see on Netflix, or maybe haven’t heard of yet. Similar to the Borscht Belt, the festival aims to be a place to “discover new talents,” she told the New York Jewish Week.
Other highlights include a “Rocky Horror”-esque screening of “Dirty Dancing” — in which participants are encouraged to dress as their favorite characters and can sing and dance along to the film, set at a Catskills resort — and a concert from the klezmer group The Shul Band. There will also be the first exhibit of the work of the late Holocaust survivor and painter Morris Katz — who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Record as both the world’s fastest and most prolific artist — put together by a curator from the New-York Historical Society.
Various signs for the resorts and bungalow colonies in the Borscht Belt. (Catskills Borscht Belt Museum)
Jacobs expects some 8,000 to 10,000 attendees at the festival throughout the day. In addition to having a good time and learning about the Borscht Belt, “We want to bring culture back to the Catskills and … develop Ellenville as a kind of a regional cultural hub,” he said.
Looking ahead, Jacobs said the goal is to have the Borscht Belt Museum and its spin-off festival evolve into a brand. They are hoping to host the Borscht Belt Film Festival in Ellenville in the fall; create a stand-up comedy outpost at Ellenville’s Shadowland Theater, featuring monthly shows there; and create year-round programming in both New York City and upstate.
The museum’s first pop-exhibit, curated by the International Center for Photography New York in partnership with the Bard Graduate Center, will be open from early July through the end of the summer at the yet-to-be renovated site of the future museum.
Many Jewish museums “can be a bit depressing — it’s pogroms and the Holocaust, which is important,” said Jacobs, who directed the 2008 documentary “Four Seasons Lodge,” about a Catskills bungalow colony populated by Holocaust survivors. “But I think there’s a real craving for a museum that tells a story about Jews that is triumphant and joyous.”
The Borscht Belt Fest will take place on July 29 in Ellenville, New York. For tickets, visit Borschtbeltfest.org
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The post The first-ever Borscht Belt Festival celebrates a bygone Jewish era appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence
McGill University has canceled an on-campus event planned by Jewish students—and temporarily halted bookings for all extracurricular activities—following threats of violence along with a death threat, as outlined in a […]
The post McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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US Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strip Funding From Universities That Boycott Israel
US Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) at a press conference in Bergenfield, New Jersey, US on June 5, 2023. Photo: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
US Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation to cut off federal funding from universities that engage in boycotts of Israel.
The legislation, titled “The Protect Economic Freedom Act,” would render universities that participate in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel ineligible for federal funding under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, prohibiting them from receiving federal student aid. The bill would also mandate that colleges and universities submit evidence that they are not participating in commercial boycotts against the Jewish state.
“Enough is enough. Appeasing the antisemitic mobs on college campuses threatens the safety of Jewish students and faculty and it undermines the relationship between the US and one of our strongest allies. If an institution is going to capitulate to the BDS movement, there will be consequences — starting with the Protect Economic Freedom Act,” Foxx, chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said in a statement.
Gottheimer added that the legislation is necessary to thwart the surging tide of antisemitism on college campuses. Although the lawmaker noted that students are allowed to engage in free expression regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, he argued that blanket boycotts against Israel endanger the lives of Jewish students and community members.
“The goal of the antisemitic BDS movement is to annihilate the democratic State of Israel, America’s critical ally in the global fight against terror. While students and faculty are free to speak their minds and disagree on policy issues, we cannot allow antisemitism to run rampant and risk the safety and security of Jewish students, staff, faculty, and guests on college campuses,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “The new bipartisan Protect Economic Freedom Act will give the Department of Education a critical new tool to combat the antisemitic BDS movement on college campuses. Now more than ever, we must take the necessary steps to protect our Jewish community.”
The legislation instructs the US Department of Education to keep a record of universities that refuse to confirm their non-participation in anti-Israel boycotts. The list of universities in non-compliance with the legislation would be made publicly available.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre acrosssouthern Israel, universities across the country have found themselves embroiled in controversies regarding campus antisemitism. In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Israel, hordes of students and faculty orchestrated protests and demonstrations condemning the Jewish state. Student groups at elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia issued statements blaming Israel for the attacks and expressing support for Hamas.
Several high-profile universities have also shown a significant level of tolerance for anti-Jewish sentiment festering on their campuses. Northwestern University, for example, capitulated to demands of anti-Israel activists to remove Sabra Hummus from campus dining halls because of its connections to Israel. At Stanford University, Jewish students have reported being forced to condemn Israel before being allowed to enter campus parties. Students at the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University launched unsuccessful attempts to convince the university to divest endowment funds from companies tied to Israel.
The post US Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strip Funding From Universities That Boycott Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Harvard Chaplains Omit Antisemitism From Statement on Antisemitic Incident
Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Harvard University’s Office of the Chaplain and Religious and Spiritual Life is being criticized by a rising Jewish civil rights activist for omitting any mention of antisemitism from a statement addressing antisemitic behavior.
The sharp words followed the office’s response to a hateful demonstration on campus in which pro-Hamas students stood outside Harvard Hillel and called for it to banned from campus. Such a demand is not new, as it began earlier this semester at the direction of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) organization, which coordinates the lion’s share of anti-Zionist activity on college campuses.
As seen in footage of the demonstration, the students chanted “Zionists aren’t welcome here!” and held signs which accused the organization — the largest campus organization for Jewish students in the world — of embracing “war criminals” and genocide.
Addressing the behavior, Harvard Chaplains issued a statement, which is now being pointed to as a symbol of higher education’s indifference to the unique hatred of antisemitism, as well as its permutation as anti-Zionism.
“We have noticed a trend of expression in which entire groups of students are told they ‘are not welcome here’ because of their religious, cultural, ethnic, or political commitments and identities, or are targeted through acts of vandalism,” the office said, seemingly circumventing the matter at hand. “We find this trend disturbing and anathema to the dialogue and connection across lines of difference that must be a central value and practice of a pluralistic institution of higher learning.”
It continued, “Student groups who are singled out in this way experience such language and acts of vandalism as a painful attack that undermines the acceptance and flourishing of religious diversity here at Harvard. Let us all endeavor to care for one another in these divisive times.”
Recent Harvard graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum, who addressed the Republican National Convention in August to discuss the ways which progressive bias in higher education fosters anti-Zionism and anti-Western ideologies, described the statement as a moral failure in a post on X/Twitter on Tuesday.
“Disappointing,” he said. “After Harvard Jews were told by masked students ‘Zionists aren’t welcome here’ outside of the Hillel, the Chaplain Office finally released a statement that did not include the words Jew, Zionism, Israel, or antisemitism. A total abdication of religious responsibility.”
Kestenbaum noted in a later statement that Harvard’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, has so far declined to speak on the issue at all. He charged that when Charleston “isn’t plagiarizing, she and DEI normalize antisemitism,” referring to evidence, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, that Charleston is a serial plagiarist who climbed the hierarchy of the higher education establishment by pilfering other people’s scholarship.
Harvard University president Alan Garber — installed after former president Claudine Gay resigned following revelations that she is also a serial plagiarist — has, experts have said, been inconsistent in managing the campus’ unrest.
During summer, The Harvard Crimson reported that Harvard downgraded “disciplinary sanctions” it levied against several pro-Hamas protesters it suspended for illegally occupying Harvard Yard for nearly five weeks, a reversal of policy which defied the university’s previous statements regarding the matter. Unrepentant, the students, members of the group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), celebrated the revocation of the punishments on social media and promised to disrupt the campus again.
Earlier this semester, however, Garber appeared to denounce a pro-Hamas student group which marked the anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by praising the brutal invasion as an act of revolutionary justice that should be repeated until the Jewish state is destroyed, despite having earlier announced a new “institutional neutrality” policy which ostensibly prohibits the university from weighing in on contentious political issues. While Garber ultimately has said more than Gay when the same group praised the Oct. 7 massacre last academic year, his administration’s handling of campus antisemitism has been ambiguous, according to observers — and described even by students who benefited from its being so as “caving in.”
The university’s perceived failure to address antisemitism has had legal consequences.
Earlier this month, a lawsuit accusing it of ignoring antisemitism was cleared to proceed to discovery, a phase of the case which may unearth damaging revelations about how college officials discussed and crafted policy responses to anti-Jewish hatred before and after Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.
The case, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, centers on several incidents involving Harvard Kennedy School professor Marshall Ganz during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Ganz allegedly refused to accept a group project submitted by Israeli students for his course, titled “Organizing: People, Power, Change,” because they described Israel as a “liberal Jewish democracy.” He castigated the students over their premise, the Brandeis Center says, accusing them of “white supremacy” and denying them the chance to defend themselves. Later, Ganz allegedly forced the Israeli students to attend “a class exercise on Palestinian solidarity” and the taking of a class photograph in which their classmates and teaching fellows “wore ‘keffiyehs’ as a symbol of Palestinian support.”
During an investigation of the incidents, which Harvard delegated to a third party firm, Ganz admitted that he believed “that the students’ description of Israel as a Jewish democracy … was similar to ‘talking about a white supremacist state.’” The firm went on to determine that Ganz “denigrated” the Israeli students and fostered “a hostile learning environment,” conclusions which Harvard accepted but never acted on.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Harvard Chaplains Omit Antisemitism From Statement on Antisemitic Incident first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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