Need a place to escape from the every day city hustle? Visit the Borscht Belt.
A woodland sanctuary lays in the Catskill Mountains, only two hours North of New York City. Unfortunately, there’s not much left of the Borscht Belt today.
In the 1920’s the Catskill region, primarily Sullivan, Orange and Ulster County, began to flourish with summer resorts, bungalow colonies and summer camps.
Because of the name, Borscht (an Eastern European beet soup) many Jewish New Yorkers were attracted to the Catskill resorts. With thousand’s of visitors daily, the Borscht Belt became one of New York’s most popular summer destinations.
Popular entertainers such as Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Janis Joplin, Jerry Seinfeld and many others regularly appeared in the area’s resorts. Along with live entertainment, many resort vacations would include swimming, golfing, gambling, and relaxing.
The Tamarack Lodge was once one of the popular summer destinations in the Borscht Belt. I’m still researching to see if any of the Borscht resorts are currently open. However, many have been demolished while others remain vacant after closure.
