PHOTO ESSAY

Left, a soap dish in decay. Bathroom, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort and Hotel, Liberty, NY

RU I N S of th e BORSCHT BE LT

A photo essay and conversation with documentary photographer Marisa Scheinfeld

by Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter or me, looking at photographs is a different aesthetic experience from appreciating other works of art. A per- son’s reaction to a given piece is usually in response to its physical form and qualities; pleasure is derived from the F immediate sensory experience. When looking at photographs, however, the subject matter and its relationship to the world must also be taken into account. In other words, a pho- tograph cannot be experienced on a strictly sensory level but must also be processed intellectually. Merging sensory experience with intellect, though, allows room for ideology to influence the outcome. This entanglement seems inevitable when considering photographs. Because photos lend themselves to various interpretations and can tell different stories to different people, a person’s mind- set and beliefs can affect his understanding. When I viewed Marisa Scheinfeld’s magnificent photographs of the ruins of the , they symbolized for me the story of the disappearing Jew in America through assimilation. Before me were grand hotels in various states of decay along with mere hints of the once prosperous Jewish guests who vacationed in them. What remains of both are truly only ruins. Yet she interprets the photos differently. “I don’t really look at it as a story of assimilation,” she tells me. “I see it as the universal story of Ameri- cans. It’s an epidemic where we Americans have, use, and then abandon. Americans continuously take in and expel—like Detroit, a city that was pros- perous and gave us a car industry and was then mis- managed and failed. I really look at it as a cautionary tale for the 21st century.” She is not, though, entirely dismissive of my inter- pretation. “I can appreciate your perspective, and yes, many Jews have assimilated. But as a Jew whose own family has assimilated, the feeling of being Jewish and how proud I am to be Jewish, regardless of the level of my observance, is still embedded in my heart and soul.”

Coffee Shop, Grossinger’s Catskill Resort and Hotel, Liberty, NY

The Persian Room, The Pines Hotel, South Fallsburg, NY

170 AMI MAGAZINE // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // 11 TISHREI 5774 11 TISHREI 5774 // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // AMI MAGAZINE 171 So her own strong Jewish identity pre- born out of a desire for Jews to experience (above) Guest Room, Jennie G. Building, Grossinger’s vents her from seeing it as the story of the an American-style vacation in the country, Catskill Resort and Hotel; (below, right) Hallway, disappearing secular Jew? while also holding on to the customs and Jennie G. Building “True, as time has gone by, many Jews observances that were sacred to them. It was have assimilated. My own family was also a big plus that the Catskills look a lot Orthodox two generations ago and I con- like the places in Europe many of the immi- Borscht Belt hotels and bungalow colonies sider myself a secular Jew. But adjectives grants came from. Most of the hotels were have been bought by Orthodox Jews, so in aside, I am a Jew. You could look at it like kosher when they started, but of course, a sense the area has been revived in a com- that if you wish. But I don’t necessarily take some were more religious than others.” pletely new way. I wish there was a way to that viewpoint. I look at it as a tale of Amer- “Aren’t there basically two Jewish stories forge more connections between the locals ica. The beauty of art is that it is open to in the Catskills, the Orthodox story and the and the summer Orthodox crowd. I’m interpretation and opinion.” non-Orthodox story?” I insist. not saying it doesn’t happen, but I under- So it’s not even a Jewish story? “I think the contemporary phenomenon stand the boundaries of each group. I know “I don’t like to say something is one or of Orthodox Jews in the Catskills is different people in both circles and find myself min- the other. To me, things are always a little from the one that previously existed. Today, gling between them.” of both. There’s a lot of Jewish history in the Orthodox Jews make up a large percentage Why does she think that the era of the Catskills as well as world history. I like to of the county’s (Sullivan County’s) summer- Borscht Belt’s magnificent hotels ultimately emphasize histories, in the plural.” time visitors. My family and I embrace the came to an end? Of course, there’s an undeniably and par- businesses that have sprung up—everything “There were many reasons why the ticular Jewish connection to the Borscht Belt. from the bakeries to the falafel places. Other Borscht Belt failed. Some people just didn’t “No matter the level of observance, there locals don’t have the same attitude, but the want to go to a Jewish hotel. They wanted is someone in every Jewish family with a Orthodox Jews flocking to the region each to go to Europe or Atlantic City or Las connection. The Borscht Belt began in the summer certainly provide commerce that Vegas. Others attribute it to the growth of 1920s as a reaction to discrimination. The the area wouldn’t have otherwise. You still the airline industry. Some say it was because simple fact was that Jews were banned from have Jews who aren’t Orthodox vacation- women took a more active role in the work most hotels in America. The industry was ing in the Catskills, but a lot of the old force. You could also say that everything in

172 AMI MAGAZINE // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // 11 TISHREI 5774 the world has its season.” “Are you a professional photographer?” I Wh en I viewed Marisa ask. “Yes. I’ve been taking pictures since I Sch einfeld’s magnificent was 15. In high school I learned all about film and how to develop photographs in a photographs of th e ruins darkroom. That’s when I got hooked. I have both a Bachelor of Fine Arts [degree] and a of th e Borscht B elt, th ey Master of Fine Arts [degree] in photogra- phy.” symbolized for me th e “Which period of art history interests you the most?” I inquire. story of th e d isappearing “I suppose my favorite would be the period of the 1800s, when photography J ew in America through was first invented. I’m fascinated by how its discovery changed the world. Photog- a s s i m i l at i o n . raphy allowed people to see beyond their own living rooms and towns and gave them lived in Flatbush, but shortly afterwards my father and his sister were born, they also a glimpse of different customs, traditions we moved to . My parents both came along. The Catskills were a big part of and lifestyles around the world. Photogra- grew up in , my father on Ocean our family life, way before me. My whole phy allowed for an exploration of the world Parkway and Avenue J, and my mother in family is embedded in its hills.” for those who couldn’t actually travel; that’s Sheepshead Bay. My father’s father is from “Where did you grow up?” how the term ‘armchair travel’ was coined.” Poland. My grandparents, Ruth and Jack, “We lived in the Bronx until I was six, “Which part of the world were you born actually met in the Catskills. After my when my dad finished medical school. He in?” grandparents got married they used to go had been going to the Albert Einstein College “I was born in Brooklyn. My parents up to the Catskills all the time, and when of Medicine and was now looking for a job.

11 TISHREI 5774 // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // AMI MAGAZINE 173 He didn’t want to raise a family in the city to deteriorate when I was a teenager. The Ice Skating Rink, Pines Hotel, South Fallsburg, NY and was offered a position in the Catskills. entire economy of the country (the Catskills So that’s how we ended up [living] up there. region) was built around the hotel industry, “Some of my earliest Catskill memories and when they closed the whole county about countless times in literature and per- are of going to these Borscht Belt hotels with took a downturn. And along with the hotel sonal memoirs. There were many archival my grandparents, especially Kutsher’s and industry, a sense of pride in the area was images and postcards, but as far as I knew the Concord, because we lived right in the also lost. there had never been a comprehensive fine middle between both hotels. I remember “Do you live in now?” art photographic documentation of the playing bingo and cards and going for the “On the Upper West Side.” region. So I began to do something known Jewish holidays and going to the café and “When did you become interested in as re-photography. Re-photography is the the pool. These hotels were immense com- the Borscht Belt from a photographic per- process of ‘now and then’ photography: pounds, and I could run around and be spective?” the act of taking an old picture or postcard free. I wasn’t really conscious that they were “I knew that the region had a great his- and remaking it under the conditions that no longer in their heyday, but from the sto- tory, this notorious Jewish-American, exist today, from the same vantage point ries I overheard I knew they must have been post-WWII era that had thrived and was and position as the photographer who took really great. These stories were unavoidable, internationally famous, even though I’d only it long ago. It is a very precise method and whether from family members, friends or seen a tiny glimpse of it in its dying days. I takes a lot of time.” locals. They always talked about how busy realized that people were slowly forgetting “Can you give me an example of re-pho- the hotels were with the shows and enter- about it. The people who had worked and tography of a hotel?” tainment. And the food, of course. vacationed there were growing old, and the “Okay. I had a postcard of what was “One summer when I was in high school, structures were falling apart and decaying once the indoor pool at a hotel called the I worked as a lifeguard at the Concord. and becoming eyesores in the community. Laurels in Sackett Lake. The hotel burned That was the last year before it closed. Then I starting making trips back home during down in the 1990s. I went up there and I went away to college and didn’t think of my school breaks to do research, read books shot a picture of the same pool, but today it’s the region much except as my hometown. and drive around a lot. I tried to get my outdoors. This immediately became a meta- I knew it was experiencing many difficul- hands on any old photos and information phor for the passage of time. It turned on ties, especially economically speaking, but about the Borscht Belt as I could. There was a light bulb in my head. What happens to it was a cherished place I loved and still love a treasure trove of stuff. The Borscht Belt things over time, to places and people? How to return to. The Borscht Belt really began was a cherished part of Americana, written do they change, evolve and move forward?

174 AMI MAGAZINE // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // 11 TISHREI 5774 Then I’d turn around and see something into rehab centers, meditation centers or, as there are some things that are very ugly magical, like a plant growing up through a I mentioned, Orthodox hotels and resorts. and difficult and hard to look at, but also crack in the floor, and I couldn’t walk away My project focuses solely on the ruins.” elements that are very beautiful. I think without taking a picture. So aside from my “What is it about ruins that interests you?” these pictures lend themselves to that flow. intention to do this re-photography project, “I was never the type of person who was There’s one picture of a laundry room that there was still a narrative to be told from the interested in taking a photo of a sunset, looks like an apocalyptic scene. Everyone ruins of these hotels. I set out to see as many although I can appreciate it. I think I’m has fled; it’s very ominous and dark and of these hotels as I could. I wanted to see interested in ruins because of all the history you wonder where everyone went. Then them in all four seasons, not only because that’s embedded in them, all the events that there are other images that are more about the Borscht Belt was known as an all-year- transpired both good and bad. Photogra- life, where you’ll see a plant pushing its way long resort, but also because the seasons phers have always been interested in ruins. through the floor in a little room that has were a very big part of my own childhood In the late 1800s, you had photographers completely fallen apart and been neglected. experience.” going back to the ancient civilizations in the The project is filled with metaphors. There’s “In what conditions did you find these Middle East and India to document them. also the underlying notion of the power of hotels?” Ruins can be metaphors for things that sur- nature having reclaimed these hotels. In that “They were all in different stages of decay. vived, persisted and persevered despite the sense, the ruins themselves are alive again, Some, like Grossinger’s, have a lot of struc- fact that everything around them was falling active forces, vital and energetic, but in a tures still standing. Others, like the Con- and crashing. Some people might consider new way.” cord, have been demolished, nothing at all them dead, but I see them as active and “How many hotels were in the Borscht left. Sometimes all you can see is two stone vital, a powerful force.” Belt?” pillars at the end of a road indicating a “So it’s not all about decay?” “At one point there were 600 hotels scat- former entrance, or maybe a little crumbled- “Well, it is in a state of decay, but in tered around Sullivan County, and about up concrete. Some places were completely essence it’s also about renewal and regen- 400 bungalow colonies. My project pres- burned down and the only thing left is a eration. There’s that idea again: Things are ents a contemporary photographic view of pool a few hundred yards into the woods. always a bit of both. The project is also a these hotels but it’s more than just about Then you have other hotels that were bought metaphor for the life cycle. Everything has the hotels; it has many layers. At its founda- from the previous owners and converted a birth and a death. In between the two, tion, it’s rooted in the history of American (above, and below left) Indoor Pool, Grossinger’s book goes to print. Or else until I feel com- “That’s a recent one. I really like it too. Catskill Resort and Hotel plete.” As soon as I saw that corroded soap dish I “Were you afraid to go into any of these couldn’t take my eyes off it. A lot of those hotels?” images, like the soap dish and the cups on Jews who vacationed in this place and the “When I first started I was a little scared. the floor, make me think about how many communities and bonds that were formed. Some of them, like Grossinger’s, are huge— people stayed there and what their lives People held weddings and bar mitzvahs and eight buildings on a tremendous plot of were like and their personal histories and celebrated anniversaries… The social aspect land. In the beginning I didn’t know exactly stories. of what the Catskills created is beautiful.” where I was going. I always brought some- “Since I began this project, I can’t tell “Would you say there’s a practical pur- one along with me for safety. Many of you how many people have come to my pose too? the floors in these buildings were falling shows or lectures to share their memories. “Well, a practical purpose would be to through, so I had to be cautious. But once They’ll look at a picture of a lobby and after call attention to an area that’s been largely I started working more, I began to feel very expressing dismay that it’s falling apart forgotten. I really believe it still has so much comfortable. It was peaceful. People had they’ll say, ‘Oh, I met my husband there,’ or potential and deserves a renewal and revi- made wonderful memories in these places. ‘That’s where we got married.’ And they’re talization. If you look at the history of the I see a lot of birds, plants and deer, mostly so happy! I’m so gratified and pleased that county, it has had three major industries: wildlife. I’ve never seen a single rat; there’s my work can do this, that it can provoke lumber, leather tanning and then the hotel no food for them to eat. But I have seen evi- emotions and conversation. I think that’s industry. When one died out, another dence of homeless people, kids partying, the entire point. popped up in its place. History tends to skateboarders who made a makeshift skate- “I’m looking at the overpass of the Pines repeat itself, so at this point it’s only a matter board park, but I’ve never been bothered by Hotel in South Fallsburg. What’s the signifi- of time before something new evolves.” anyone.” cance of that?” “When did you take all of these photos?” “Have you also explored the old bunga- “I’m trying to create an experience where “They were taken over the past two and low colonies?” you’re actually going through the hotel. So a half years, but I’m still shooting. I was up “I’m going to try to do a few this fall.” there are a few where I use overpasses that there the last two weekends and I hope to “I think your photograph of the blue soap link one area to another, to connect one go the next. It’s an ongoing project until the dish is one my favorites.” photograph to the next.

11 TISHREI 5774 // SEPTEMBER 15, 2013 // AMI MAGAZINE 177 “The coffee shop with the row of metal more in other places, unlike here, where Dining Room, Pines Hotel, South Fallsburg, NY and green stools at a nonexistent counter is everything is disposable. We’re always truly moving.” looking for the next shiny big thing.” “Yes. The absence of the counter high- “Where do you lecture and what do you lights even more how bereft it is of the lecture about?” Simon Wiesenthal Library in Los Angeles.” people who used to sit in them.” “About this project. I’ll give a presenta- “How many photographs in total do you “Then there’s the shot of the indoor pool tion wherever anyone asks me to. Last intend to publish on the Borscht Belt?” at Grossinger’s. There’s a beach chair just Sunday I was at the Lower East Side Jewish “About 80.” sitting there.” Conservancy. I’m going to speak at a temple “Is there going to be a narrative or include “The beach chair mimics the shape of a in Bedford, New York, another on the people’s stories?” human body. The chair is situated in a room Upper West Side, in a JCC in Long Island. “No, but I intend to use them as mate- that has been invaded by nature. There’s A few weeks ago I was at the Monticello rial to paint a more vivid picture of the area. grass growing through the tiles. That pic- Library and at the Arts Center in Liberty. I’ll I’m also grateful for these stories, because ture has all the ideas I’m interested in: the talk about the project wherever I’m invited. they enable me to stay in touch with people history of the site; the absence of people Sometimes it’s in conjunction with an exhi- and let them know about my projects. The signifying its decline; the elements of nature bition and sometimes it’s just a PowerPoint Borscht Belt was such an important place to indicating renewed life, albeit in a different presentation. so many people.” form.” “Right now there’s an exhibition going on “Some artists can’t explain their art,” I “Tell me more about the photograph of at the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy tell her before saying goodbye. “I find that the cups.” on Grand Street. I’m planning some more you are an artist who can articulate her art “That has to do with objects as well as for the future that aren’t yet confirmed. very well. You combine the visual with the people. There is so much in our lives that “Have you published any of your other intellect.” I’m still not certain whether her we use and toss aside and don’t even con- works?” perspective is entirely in sync with mine, sider. That picture can be seen as a moral “I did a project on a group of Holocaust however. But photos lend themselves to tale about our society. I’ve traveled around survivors living in San Diego, California, various interpretations, telling different sto- the world and seen how things are reused and published a book about them. It’s in the ries to different people. 

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