Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2011 A Lost Land: The ewJ ish Experience in the Catskills Briana H. Mark Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Jewish Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Mark, Briana H., "A Lost Land: The eJ wish Experience in the Catskills" (2011). Honors Theses. 1029. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/1029 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A Lost Land: The Jewish Experience in The Catskill Mountains By Briana Mark *********** Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of History Union College June 2011 1 Chapter One: Secondary Literature Review: The Rise and Fall of the Catskill Resorts When thinking of the great resort destinations of the world, New York City’s Catskill region may not come immediately to mind. It should. By the early twentieth century, the fruitful farmlands of Sullivan and Ulster Counties became home to hundreds of hotels and bungalow colonies that served the Jews of New York City. Yet these hotels were unlike most in America, for they not only represented an escape from the confines of the ghetto of the Lower East Side, but they also retained a distinct religious nature. The Jewish dietary laws were followed in most of the colonies and resorts, and religious services were also a part of daily life.