IN THE MOUNTAINS

NEWSLETTER OF THE CATSKILLS INSTITUTE An Organization to Promote Research and Education on the Significance of the Catskill Mountains for American Jewish Life

NUMBER 15 APRIL 2004

KLEZKAMP 2003 10TH ANNUAL HISTORY OF THE By Irwin Richman CATSKILLS CONFERENCE Living Traditions’ 19th Annual photo by Jessica Schein ANNOUNCED Yiddish Folk Arts Program, “KlezKamp,” was held Decem- August 27th-29th, 2004 ber 23-29, 2003, at the Swan Kutsher’s Country Club Lake Hotel in the Sullivan County hamlet of Swan Lake. It’s never too early to plan for The event was a welcoming the next conference. and decidedly haimish alterna- Panel on History of the Catskills: (l-r) Neil Blackman, Phil Brown, Irwin If you have not yet attended, you tive to America’s Christmas Richman, Henry Sapoznik, Paul Pincus, Pete Sokolow, Ray Musiker have no idea what you’re miss- drenched December environ- ing. If you have attended before, ment. About 550 people par- keep the tradition alive. ticipated; some to study Yiddish bungalows and hotels. Henry Sapoznik appeared op- culture, others to speak Yid- Phil and Irwin were also posite a reprint of the original This coming conference will dish, but most to play and/or members of a panel, “Working text. It recalled the Halcyon again feature the extremely dance to klezmer music. Music in the Mountains,” attended by days when, “Every hotel was popular bus tour and an “open was like a warm Jacuzzi envel- most kampers on Tuesday packed, and they crammed mike” session. evening. Other panelists were people in like herring in a bar- oping the entire environment Watch the website for further Neil Blackman, the hotel’s rel.” A time when a request practically, and possibly, 24/7. details of speakers and events. Being a retiree I went to sleep at sales manager and longterm for a room might be met with night at a temperate 1:00 or hotel veteran, and three musi- a snappy rejoinder from a very 2:00 a.m. while music was still cians who had played the Cats- self-satisfied proprietor, being played and people were kills: Pete Sokolow, Paul Pin- “Nothing doing mister, you dancing. cus, and Ray Musiker. should have come during the Inside this issue: Historically KlezKamp had KlezKamp’s Zhurnal winter when the place was been held at the Paramount (Journal) featured an article, empty.” BOOK CORNER 7 Hotel in Parksville, Sullivan “The Legacy of the Jewish KlezKampniks came in all County, until the resort burned Catskills,” by Phil and “The ages, literally from babies to three years ago. For the next Catskills: A Photo Essay,” by folks in their 90s. Everyone IN MEMORIAM 3 two years KlezKamp was held Albert J. Winn, which cen- could find their own coteries in Cherry Hill, New Jersey – tered on Parksville as photo- and appealing scheduled and KLEZ KAMP 2003 1-2 hardly sacred ground. 2003 graphed in winters past. Addi- unscheduled activities, coming marked KlezKamp’s return to tionally, there was a transla- together for meals and evening the Catskills. tion by Michael Wex of a 1947 programs. AIN’T NO MOUN– 4-6 The Catskills Institute was broadcast on WEVD about a These evening programs TAIN HIGH ENOUGH part of the joyous event and vacation in “The Mountains” were highlights of the Kamp offered a program, “The Catskill and a translation of, “A Night and each was followed by a ARCHIVES 2 Institute at KlezKamp,” featur- of Plezhur: A note from the dance party featuring Jewish ing Phil Brown and Irwin mountains,” written by B. dancing with the dances being ORDER CONFERENCE 7 Richman discussing a full range Kovner (Jacob Adler), which led by KlezKamp dance in- TAPES of Catskill themes including art appeared in The Forverts in structors so that they had form history, movies and, of course, 1935. The translation by (Continued on page 2) PAGE 2 IN THE MOUNTAINS

KLEZKAMP 2003 (Continued from page 1) but with others who couldn’t be numerous crystal chandeliers and with us for the whole week. an over-abundance of oversized and were not entirely the free- Sunday night was the culmina- oriental vases and other exotic for-all that the obligatory hora or tion of the week with a concert tchatchkes that defy description. sher is at many Because KlezKamp Jewish weddings. is glatt kosher, cater- With some indi- ers supplied the vidual dances last- meals, which, except ing half an hour, for Friday night,

you needed stam- photo by Jessica Schein were presented buf- “Every hotel was ina, but all was fet style and were packed, and they joyous. The more mediocre mod- crammed people in like grandest of the ern orthodox style herring in a barrel.” evening programs than classic borscht were Saturday and belt. One was not ~EXCERPT FROM “A Sunday nights. tempted to overeat. NIGHT OF PLEZHUR” Saturday night But you were there REFERENCING THE was an historic for an education, KlezKamp Jam Session at Swan Lake Resort HALCYON event. A live recrea- pleasure, and fellow- tion of a vintage Yiddish radio by the many groups (students ship, not food – and these essen- program was broadcast on the and faculty) that had been assem- tials were available in abundance local (Jeffersonville) PBS station, bled during the Kamp week. whether you studied Yiddish, WJFF, and available worldwide The dance party afterwards was dance, paper cutting, music his- on the Internet. “Yiddish Mel- especially spirited, including two tory, Hebrew calligraphy, or ody in Swing,” was a long-lasting folks who danced on stilts. Catskill culture … or played WEVD program that featured The Swan Lake Hotel, itself, music. It was a feast for the Jewish arrangements of then new was an experience. It is the re- soul. songs, combined with traditional named version of the Stevensville Thanks go to Living Tradi- and theatre music. All was very Hotel, which, after being aban- tions’ founder Henry Sapoznik, lively and complete with period doned and boarded up for many and to his colleagues for mount- commercials from the sponsor, years, has recently been re- ing the event and for inviting the B. Manischewitz and Co. It was claimed by an unlikely couple – Catskill Institute into its tent. It an evening that everyone in at- he an Italian American physician was truly the Jewish un- tendance will remember. The and she an Asian American. Christmas. night club at the Swan Lake, Very much a work in progress, KlezKamp, welcome back to renamed “Tanzhal,” was the hotel’s lobby and dining the Catskills! crowded, not only with Kampers room have been reinvented with

Rosenblatt Hotel, Glen Wild. Source for the fictional hotel in Main House of the Delmar Hotel in Loch Sheldrake. Rueben Wallrod’s “Dusk in the Catskills” Owned and operated by Max & Claire Jacobs. NUMBER 15 PAGE 3

IN MEMORIAM

HARRIET KAPLAN ways another kind of extended family. end. I married Sharon on the front lawn October 17, 1920—February 8, 2004 Guests would often remark that the of the hotel on a warm October Sunday Harriet Kaplan was a longtime resident hotel had “a real family feeling” about it. under a bright blue sky with the fall of Monticello, with a winter home in Max had a paternal affection toward the foliage in the background. Lake Worth, Florida, She was a retired generations of busboys and waiters Max’s signature comments were deliv- manager of the former Kaplan's Delica- whose summer earnings at the hotel ered on the public address system at the tessen in Monticello. The daughter of enabled them to put themselves through hotel. Best known were his announce- the late Charles and Bertha Kuntz, she college. ments of breakfast, lunch and dinner. was born in the Bronx. Harriet’s hus- Max met Claire in Paris during World “Good morning ladies and gentlemen of band, Ben Kaplan, a columnist for the War II and brought her back to the the Delmar Hotel. It is a lovely day, the Sullivan County Democrat, is a member of states. They worked closely together sun is shining, the herring are jumping, the Catskills Institute Advisory Board, running the hotel during their 58 years and breakfast is now being served, the and was for years the director of the of marriage. She ran the kitchen and main dining room is now open.” Some- Sullivan County Hotel Association. Mrs. cooked for 150 guests while he ran the times he would accidentally leave the Kaplan is also survived two daughters office. They were rarely apart, and microphone on after calling a guest to and sons-in-law, Sari and Joel Mittleer never for long, and they made most the telephone, and his candid remarks and Ricki and Steven Lacy; four grand- important decisions together. They were would be broadcast to the entire hotel. daughters, Tracey Daniels and her hus- a good team. “That Sadie Cohen, she is eating my band, Jason of Queens, Mara Epstein Max was a steady and loving father. He kishkes out!” he would exclaim. These and her husband Eric, of Manhattan, and would pick us up after school when we episodes were embarrassing but also Emma and Carly Rothfeld, both of Bos- would stay late for Hebrew school and, funny. Howie and I would race to the ton, Mass.; four sisters-in-law, Ellen later, debate practice. He had high lobby to the office to turn off the micro- Kaplan of Bardonia, Temmy Kaplan of hopes for his smart sons. He wanted phone. A couple of days after his death Margate, Fla., Irene Fritsch and her Howie to become a doctor or a math from complications related to a blockage husband, Robert, of Sarasota, Fla., and teacher and me to become a senator. But in his intestines, I suddenly realized that Rebecca Kaplan of Monticello; and six part of him wanted us to carry on the he died of kishke failure. How ironic. nieces and nephews. She was prede- family business. Even after I received my Maybe they did eat his kishkes out after ceased by a brother Bernard Kuntz. Ph.D., he said “You teach during the all.

MAX JACOBS school year. You could come up and run He was a strong supporter of the state May 24, 1915—January 31, 2004 the hotel in the summer, you know.” I of Israel. His commitment to social jus- Max Jacobs was a character. He lived suppose that it is natural to want your tice certainly had its roots in his Jewish to the ripe old age of 88. Mentally he children to carry on your life’s work upbringing. A picture of Chaim was sharp as ever until the very end. even when you really want them to pur- Weiztmann, the first president of Israel, However, he complained of his failing sue loftier ambitions. hung on the wall of his office at the hotel health. “The golden years are not so Max was the proprietor of the Delmar for many years. He frequently would golden,” he would say. But I think he Hotel, formerly the Jacob Inn, for most recall the anti-Semitism that he and his would rather not have us focus on the of his adult life. The Delmar was located family personally experienced. He discomforts of his later years and his final on Route 52 between Liberty and Loch would say that in order to know who we illness but rather celebrate the many Sheldrake New York, but mail delivered are, we have to remember where we wonderful and striking aspects of his to Ferndale would also reach us. Max have been. He would want his children most active years. Max hated funerals helped his father, Hyman Jacobs, build and grandchildren to remember his fa- where the focus was on praising God to the hotel on the site of a farm that was ther’s flight from the pogroms in Russia. the neglect of the individual who just purchased in 1929. Max ran the business He would want us to remember that the passed away. Max would have wanted after his father’s death in 1936 and be- resorts of the Jewish Catskills were built someone to speak about his life. I feel came the principal proprietor after his in part because Jews were not welcome that in many ways I am my father’s son, mother’s death in 1960. elsewhere. and so it seems natural for me to stand The hotel was the gathering point for up and say a few words about Max. our extended family. Relatives would Excerpted from the eulogy deliverd by Jerry Jacobs for his often come to visit; young cousins work- father, Max Jacobs, owner of the Delmar Hotel in Loch Family is one key to understanding Max Sheldrake. Jacobs’s life. He was devoted to his own ing their way through college would take immediate family but was also commit- a summer job in the dining room or the To our departed friends, olev hasholem, may ted to keeping the extended family to- band. My brother and I had elaborate they rest in peace. gether. And the Delmar Hotel, which he Bar Mitzvah parties at the hotel with the ran for most of his life, was in many extended family visiting for the week- PAGE 4 IN THE MOUNTAINS Ain’t no mountain high enough:

Come back with me to the 1940s when the hills chains of prejudice. Given a level playing field and Heavy recruiting began in the spring. Guys got were alive with sounds of music and a geshrei an open door, they had a brave new world to jobs as busboys and waiters to maintain their (shouts) of tumult. Life in the Catskills--whether conquer. amateur status. Better hotels brought higher tips. in a grand hotel, a small kuchalayn or a mid-sized In researching this project preparatory to a A “5-3” house, Cousy explains, was most desir- bungalow colony--pulsed with excitement. Seek- book, I conducted interviews with veteran players able. Starting as a busboy, Bob presumably earned ing frisher luft, recreation, health, and fun, our and their associates. My subjects offered salient three dollars per guest each week. He had to set immigrant parents, mostly mothers, led us to the information. In addition, I had the pleasure of up the tables: providing water, bread—minus promised land of milk, honey, and sports. We meeting with quite a few outstanding players at a butter, and clean the tables after meals. Cousy played all kinds of ball: softball, baseball, volley- luncheon pm December 26, 2002 in Florida. The learned to lead a kosher life in 1948. He also ball, handball--but towering above all--basketball. keynote speaker that day, Tom Gola regaled with played two games—home and way—weekly. He Why? Author Peter Bjarkman insists that basket- anecdotes from his fabled career. Three weeks lists outstanding collegians and future pros that ball” is the appropriate mirror image of a frantic- ago, accidentally Gola fell; banged his head on played the “summer game.” The one negative in ally paced, highly impersonalized and richly laden asphalt, lapsed into a coma, and recently emerged this balanced account is heavy betting. Tamarack inner city scene that has in large part become our from this near death experience. His flirtation owner, Dave Levinson smelled a rat when he got [current] self image.” Clearly, for urban youth, with the Moloch Hamoves (Angel of death) is a wake wind of a “fix” perpetrated by members of his own roundball provided an inexpensive form of recrea- up call to all of us. We must keep his legacy alive staff. Levinson fired one intermediary and all of tion. All we needed was a ball, a basket, and through research, discourse, and publications. the players involved. Cousy neglects to name sneakers. Unlike today’s game which puts a pre- Thus, I implore all of Catskill mayvens to collect, names. mium on strength and leaping ability, the earlier share, and disseminate undzere meise (our story). On a more positive note, the Basketball Asso- version accentuated speed, cunning, agility, dib- Let us not go gently into that good night. It is easy ciation of America, forerunner to the NBA, bling skill, and a kind of field artillery in the form to wax nostalgic about those “lazy, hazy, crazy started in the Catskills. George Kalinsky and Phil of a long distance set shot. Jewish youngsters days of summer.” Lest we forget, we have an Berger document the first Knicks’ training camp seemed to gravitate to basketball. It was a truly a obligation to Tom Gola and all “the boys of sum- at the Nevele in Ellenville. Players worked out game for all seasons. mer” in the Catskills to remember as well as to twice each day on an asphalt court. Jewish and Summer was no exception to this rule. Despite record their achievements. Irish players dominated the ten man squad and a few obligatory references to “the city game” in One veteran player, youthful octogenarian, Jack those who, like Hy Gotkin, failed to make the the Borscht Belt, most scholars including our “Dutch” Garfinkel imparted oral testimony to team. I interviewed several Borscht Belt basketball distinguished host, Phil Brown prefer to glide author Neil Isaacs. “One summer I played at the players including two who debuted with the origi- over this vital topic. Indeed, there are few pub- Nevele as a busboy responsible for six tables.” nal Knickerbockers: Ossie Schectman and Ralph lished sources and no collection of box scores that After 9 PM, “Dutch” recalled, he joined fellow Kaplowitz. Ossie, an LIU grad and Ralph, an I can pinpoint. For example, Stefan Kanfer, a staff members on the basketball court. “That’s NYU alum both confirmed and enriched the Ka- prolific author, devotes less than twelve pages in where I learned to play.” While pitted against linsky-Berger account. Schectman also related his his excellent book to our subject, mostly with Grossinger’s quintet, “Dutch” discovered the glory years at LIU (my academic home): especially regard to scandal. “Friday night,” he notes “was prevalence of gambling. From 1937 to 1939, the ’1938-’39. basketball night” since the halcyon 1920s. Teem- summers of Garfinkel’s content, there were odds Other interviews provided salient information. ing with excess energy, staff members and kitchen on the games, but no point spread. Approached by NYU alum, former Philadelphia Warrior (as well help cooked up a popular diversion: basketball. gambler, the St. John’s star wisely blew him off. as SPHA) and Knick, Jerry Fleishman played College and professional players came to the As the winds of war stirred, younger players several summers for Klein’s Hillside where he Catskills to improve their skills and to earn extra would prove less honorable. welcomed the opportunity to improve his game. I money. Gambling certainly heightened attendance at reminded him that he capped his career at IL- In advancing Americanization, basketball served courtside. Initially, wagers simply focused on GWU’s Unity House in 1958 where this author as both social catalyst and cultural mirror. Crafted outcome: win or lose thereby minimizing possible earned college tuition as a busboy. “Red” by James Naismith, the game was designed to corruption. When the point spread entered the Sarachek, now 91 years young, coached as well as provide healthy and wholesome recreation for arena, a serpent was let loose in this proverbial refereed in the Catskills. As Klein’s Hillside young men, primarily poised between football in garden: Madison Square and sundry others. Now, coach, he mentored: Nat Militzok (an original autumn and baseball in spring. Jewish and Catho- high stakes gamblers would seek an edge. And the Knick by way of Hofstra and Cornell), Eddie lic youngsters battling for status and acceptance Borscht Belt provided easy access to hungry young Younger, Dolly King (two black LIU stars who adapted Naismith’s brainchild to their needs and players who, when successfully corrupted, could Sarachek claims helped to integrated basketball), applied it to their dreams. Sportswriter, Paul make a pivotal difference. and “Pop” Gates, the great Harlem Ren and Har- Gallico tartly observed that “Jews flock to basket- To be sure, records are sparse; documentation, lem Globetrotter. Under Sarachek’s aegis, these ball by the thousands” because it encouraged, the scanty. One pleasant exception to the rule derives hoopsters also played for the Scranton Miners in Columbia-educated writer speculated, “an alert from the autobiography of basketball immortal, the Eastern League. Coach “Red” is justly proud of scheming mind…flashy trickiness, artful dodging Bob Cousy. In this book co-authored with Al his role in the integration of professional basket- and general smart aleckness.” Laced with anti- Hirschberg, the brilliant play-maker evokes ball. On this score of breaking racial barriers, my Semitism, Gallico’s bilious remarks reflect a deep- “happy days“ at Tamarack Lodge, alova sholem childhood friend, Irv Brazinsky remembers seated bigotry. In spite of these canards or, per- (may it rest in peace). Cousy describes the Lodge Charles “Chuck” Cooper, arguably the first black haps, because of them, Jewish youths took to as part of a huge colony of resorts nestled in the to play in the NBA, working as a waiter by day basketball with passionate intensity and remark- Catskills. It attracts many people from New York and playing basketball at night at the Alamac Hotel able success. They had nothing to lose but the City “many of whom are crazy about basketball.” during the summers of 1947-1949 along with PAGE 5 IN THE MOUNTAINS

Borscht belt basketball by Joe dorinson

Paul Arizin and George Senesky of the Philadel- Bob Zawoluk plays a phonograph at a refreshment tice, practice. phia Warriors. stand on the waterfront. Georgetown’s Bill Bolger At this juncture, I came of age. Beset by a host Byron Igoe proved to be one of my most fasci- is shown bellhoppping at Kutcher’s and St. Johns’ of problems: an under active thyroid gland, an nating subjects. A non-Jew who played at Manhat- Jack McMahon sweeps the dining room floor at overprotective mother, high anxiety, low pain tan College after transferring from LIU, Igoe Tamarack. Kentucky’s 7 foot center, Bill Spivey threshold, and what is now perceived as bipolar shared “funny valentines” in a lengthy phone con- ducks under a transom while he slings kosher swings, I was deeply troubled. Nothing seemed to versation. A product of catholic education, he did hash, at Brickman’s. Life ends this journey to the work. We tried thyroid injections, psychother- not discover basketball until age 16 when he Jewish Alps on a high note: trumpeting pleasant apy, and that universal remedy from my youth: vaulted to 6’4” in height. Like many of his peers, summers and ebullient amateur athletes. the enema. My chronic truancy from school he ventured to upstate New York: playing and Pro basketball benefited too. Arnold “Red” among other signs of mental imbalance in the working at the Windsor Hotel. There he learned Auerbach’s parents vacationed at Kutcher’s and seventh grade as my testosterone kicked in, pro- to eat kosher and sing more than 20 verses of “Joe recommended their son, the coach to der balabos pelled my parents to have me examined at King’s and Paul” during four “fabulous” summers. Viv- (the boss). Soon, Red’s victory cigar became a County Hospital. It was a gated community. idly, he remembers the players: Bob Kelly, Julius familiar sight on roundball nights. In the moun- When one of my fellow delinquents ran away, he Kaiser, Leo Barnhorst and Bobby Wanzer in tains, eagle-eyed Auerbach spotted carrot-top returned, escorted by police, in handcuffs. 1948; Ed Kessler, Nat Militzok, and Hank Rosen- Frank Ramsay from Kentucky who morphed into I never heard such foul language and compound stein in 1949. As a waiter and occasional swim- the Boston Celtics’ first “sixth” man (one who word orders. Reluctantly, I was introduced to the ming pool operative, Byron earned a handsome leaves the bench to provide instant offense). One “mother-hyphen.” In Jewish families, you never summer wage $1000, which he sent home via young player, hard to miss, rose from the streets did that to a mother. Indeed, according to Mel money orders, a wise move given the temptations of Philadelphia, a star at Overbrook High, who Brooks, you did not even do that to your wife. of “booze” and gambling that beset my contempo- towered above seven feet: Wilt Chamberlain. Despite tsores ba leitn (troubles by the score), I raries. Byron developed a warm relationship with NBA publicist Haskell Cohen secured a job as a excelled in sports. In my despair, I sought relief owners: Sid, Hannah, and Bessie Sussman and a bell-hop for this basketball immortal at $26, plus on the basketball court. Frank Mangiopane, the command of basic Yiddish. In addition to the tips, every two weeks. Reputedly, Kutcher’s best director of physical education in my unit, had excellent food, he cherishes the time that he bellhop according to N|BA publicist Haskell played varsity basketball at NYU and, briefly, for played against the Harlem Rens, a black squad Cohen, Chamberlain enjoyed ample gratuities as the New York Knicks in 1946. He liked my game: constrained by Jim Crow but liberated, as it were, he toted more bags than anyone else. He also driving, shooting, rebounding, and passing. His in the Jewish Alps. Igoe appreciates the formation encountered “the stiffest competition” among the words of praise lifted my spirits. And the other of friendships across formerly forbidden bounda- players and, prodded by Coach Auerbach, the best “inmates” grudgingly accepted me on merit. I ries of race, religion, and culture. He prefers the instruction. Indeed, the wily mentor wanted Wilt survived. Basketball at that time proved a life- traditional New York game of give and go to the to enroll in Harvard so that he could claim him, saver. Released after a week of torment, I played razzle dazzle of today. via the then operative territorial rights option, for with uncommon zeal. Free at last, I turned to play The Frommers provide an engaging narrative the Boston Celtics. Undaunted, Philadelphia guru, for salvation. coupled with excellent photographs. If one pic- Eddie Gottlieb pushed through a rule that enabled That summer of 1949, we returned to Parks- ture is work 1000 words, let us honor brevity teams to opt for high school players too. Safely in ville. Joined by friends, fellow hoop dreamers, I with wit as we gaze at handsome 6’ 6” Bob “Zeke” the Philadelphia fold, Chamberlain went to Kansas would sneak into Klein’s Hillside to see the Zawoluk lifting diminutive golfer, Alice Bauer. A University. games. We watched in awe as the 6’10” giant, second photo features Bob Cousy flanked by taller The Catskills produced keen competition on George Mikan dominated every game with his Tamarack teammates: Wes Fields, Frank Offring, and off the court. Though George Mikan made bulky frame and deadly hook shots with either Ed Redding, and Ed Leeds. Only Cousy went on Klein’s Hillside virtually invincible in the late hand. But he had help: from smaller guards and to glory in professional ranks. The Frommers 1940s, Kutcher’s, Grossinger’s, the Ambassador, shorter forwards who scooted around the court delineate various pipelines from colleges to the White Lake Lodge (the fur worker’s resort) and for loose balls and pushed the pellet into Mr. Catskills. For example, NYU fed the Nevele, so Tamarack Lodge offered formidable opposition as Mikan. For inner-city youngsters like this author, to speak; Kentucky’s stars gravitated to well as first-rate hoops. Milton Kutcher reasoned it was a garden of delight. Mountain high, we Kutcher’s; LIU Blackbirds flew to Grossinger’s; that basketball served as “a morale booster for the were “hooked” for life. and DePaul’s George Mikan brought his mates to staff and gave guests something to root for.” What accounts for this love affair with basket- Klein’s Hillside. Once, after a tough Tamarack loss to a Chamber- ball, especially among the Jews? Our own conge- Life Magazine signaled the success of Borscht lain-led loss to Kutcher’s, Dave Levinson spotted nial host, Phil Brown provides a clue: Belt basketball with a feature story. On page 63 of Bob Cousy in tears. In the Catskills, Jews could become American- its 28 August 1950 issue, one can find a cache of Throughout my school days (when I attended), I ized while preserving much of their Jewishness. photos featuring Bradley University’s Elmer would win all the shooting contests in my class The resort area was the vacationland and work- Behnke and North Carolina State’s Dick Dickey. from fifth grade on. Everyone shot two-handed place of Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe…Jews Hotel owner, Life reported, lured 400 plus colle- set shots then and drove to the hoop for lay-ups. I could have a proper vacation like regular Ameri- gians: many from CCNY and Kentucky. These always played solid defense: physical but clean and cans but they could do it in Yiddish if they amateurs earned anywhere from $500 to $1200 at developed into a capable rebounder despite a lack wished…and a vibrant Jewish culture of humor, work to supplement their payless play. Another of height and jumping ability. Above all, I used a theater, and song. Jewish humor grew up in the photo shows Syracuse’s Jack Kiley as he rescues a yiddisher kop as well as a newly minted two-hand Catskills. water-logged guest at Klein’s Hillside while Brad- jump shot. Since I was a poor dribbler, I pursued a Dr. Brown goes on to tout Jewish music and ley’s Paul Unruh imparts aquatic instruction and Carnegie Hall approach, namely, practice, prac- (Continued on page 6) PAGE 6 IN THE MOUNTAINS

Nathan “Lovey” Brown. Ironically, Leo Ultimately, redemption came from an unex- Ain’t no mountain ... Hershfield, escaped indictment. pected source. A brilliant black hoop star, Mau- After speedy trials during a period when the rice Stokes was felled by a mysterious illness. This (Continued from page 5) only operative Miranda decision available featured sensational athlete at a small school, St. Francis of a choice of bananas rather than peaches on top of Pennsylvania in Loretto: Stokes averaged 27 Yiddish vaudeville but like most authors on this Carmen’s head, Judges Jonah J. Goldstein and points per game in his senior year. In an NIT protean subject, soaked in nostalgia, he pays little Saul Streit handed down harsh judgments ostensi- game, he electrified the crowd at Madison Square or no attention to sports, particularly basketball. bly based on New York’s Penal Code, Section Garden with 43 points. As a novice in the NBA, Why? I wonder. 382. Enacted in 1921 shortly after the notorious he played center at 6’7” 260 lbs. Averaging 16 Perhaps, this omission is explained by paradox. “Black Sox” scandal which imperiled major league points per game, he earned rookie-of-the-year After all, basketball was invented by the ultra- baseball, amend in 1945, this measure proscribed laurels. Maurice appeared in three consecutive goyish James Naismith with a “muscular Christian” bribery in all sports. The Satanic Solazzo got 8 to All-Star games. In his second year, he led the agenda. The game, which grew in urban America, 16 years; Eddie Gard, three. Four players re- league with 17.4 rebounds per game The ill-fated proved tailor-made for the Hebrew children. ceived jail terms: “Fats” Roth, Ed Warner, and Stokes ranked third in both assists and rebounds, a among Didn’t we have to keep alert, one step Connie Schaff, six months and America’s premier rare achievement. As strong as he was swift, the ahead of the pogromchicks? We had to devise a way player, Sherman White, one year! A racist bias Cincinnati Royal star had a bright future. Lamen- to swim in mainstream America while retaining contaminated Streit’s logic. White’s punishment, tably, in the 1958 season finale, Stokes fell to the some of our core values. A categorical imperative author Stan Cohen insinuates, issued from his hardwood floor and a suffered a severe blow to exhorted us to convince the doubting Thomases penchant for dating white women. Cohen points the head. Three night later, while bearding a plan, that we were just as good, even better at certain out others anomalies and incongruities in Streit’s Stokes’s temperature elevated and he collapsed. tasks. We needed a place to improve our game in Carthaginian punishment. A shonda far die goyim, At first, it was diagnosed as encephalitis. What- the off-season. Why not the country? Indeed, why Streit evoked various inconsistent standards to ever the source, Stokes lapsed into a four month not? Basketball seemed to provide the perfect spare some like Dolph Bigos because of his service coma. democratic paradigm. True, height mattered but in World War II and LeRoy Smith because his Eventually, thanks to the dedicated care of team we witnessed representatives of two oppressed parents were devout Baptists while lowering the mate Jack Twyman, a landsman (fellow traveler) minority groups, up from poverty, in their glory. boom on the orphan, Ed Warner, Al Roth, from Pittsburgh, Stokes improved, slightly. As- A level arena beckoned to people of all colors, all Sherman White, and Connie Schaff because they suming legal guardianship, Twyman raised persuasions, and little money. Moreover, basket- failed to measure up to standards arbitrarily set by money, provided counsel, assembled specialists, ball also served the Zionist cause. In 1947, several Streit. and lavished love on his fallen comrade. Most Catskill hotels, namely, the Windsor, the Flagler Trial records reveal that this “school for scandal” relevant to our concern, he organized an annual and the Harmony Country Club raised money to actually opened as early as 1947 in the Catskills. event--here at Kutcher’s--to raise money to cover support Jews seeking statehood in Israel. Bribery and corruption continued until the flood- medical costs, and after Stokes’ premature death Then reality hit us with magnum force. Scandal gates burst in 1950. The press put the blame not of a heart attack in 1970, to help other players in rocked the foundations of basketball in 1951. on Mame but on Madison Square Garden and the dire need. Thus, for many years this grand hotel Until that tragic moment, basketball was fast Borscht Belt. Several rotten fish escaped detection loomed as a beacon of light in a truly inspirational becoming America’s sport. Once the point spread in the cross-currents. Famed sportscaster, Marty if tragic saga. Surprisingly little attention has been entered Eden, we faced the fall from grace. It Glickman opined that “divine protection” helped paid to this narrative. Disturbed by such strange started in the summer, as early as 1945. Six years spare St. John’s Redmen. New York’s Francis silence, I feel compelled to sing the praises of Jack later the other sneaker fell. CCNY’s Cinderella Cardinal Spellman and District Attorney Frank Twyman, Maurice Stokes, and the “Reds” Auer- team “fixed” a game against Missouri in which, Hogan put the kibosh on further probes. Several bach and Sarachek because they forged a unity: though heavily favored, they lost to Bud Heine- incriminating records disappeared, mysteriously. Black and White, Jew and Gentile, country and man’s quintet: 37 to 54. Then, Manhattan Col- And the Redmen, now elevated to the Red Storm city, athlete and spectator which invites celebra- lege’s first black player, 6’8” center, Junius Kellog courtesy of “political correctness,” remain a local tion. Formed in the Catskills, on hallowed spilled the beans about a bribe offer tendered by hoops’ powerhouse: sanctified through official and ground, here in the heart of Jewish rather than one former and one current mate: Hank Poppe benign neglect. Jefferson’s Monticello, we remember. Norman I. and Jack Byrnes. Subsequently, 32 players from Meanwhile back in the mountains, a belea- Seidelman, a participant in this wonderful confer- seven major colleges including seven CCNY Bea- guered Milton Kutcher called a press conference ence conceived and orchestrated by Professor Phil vers pleaded guilty. Eight of the 15 indicted were not only to defend his Catskill confederates but Brown with invaluable assistance from Professor Jewish; two were Black. A prime intermediary also to nip renascent anti-Semitism in the bud. Irwin Richman, has furnished three splendid pho- between players and gamblers, former LIU star Kutcher adamantly denied that the Borscht Belt tographs of the annual Stokes’ fund-raising event. Eddie Gard started to spin his web of seduction in had served as “breeding ground” for corruption. For his artistry, Norm deserves an MVP (most the Catskills. He operated on behalf of the master Peter Levine correctly calls attention to historic valuable player) award. Featuring Bill Russell, fixer, Salvatore Sollazzo. context: a period polluted by Senator Joe Dolph Schayes, Bill Russell, Tom Sanders, Bill A lifelong criminal, Sollazzo set up shop in the McCarthy whose fulminations and fabrications Sharman, Bob Cousy, Al Seiden, Carl Braun, Al Borscht Belt where he plied potential recruits sent chills down the spine, often sadly inverte- Bianchi, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones, Richie with cash, liquors and even his wife, Jeanne, a brate, of America’s body politic. Facing a guilt by Guerin, Red Auerbach, and the recently revived former model. Also in bed with the enemy was association smear campaign, Milton Kutcher de- Tom Gola, the photos induce tugs at our heart- Jackie Goldsmith who, like co-conspirator Eddie fended basketball against a “small minority” who strings and triggers what Edmund Wilson once Gard, played for LIU. Only 5’7” the Brownsville tried to hijack our game. When non-Jewish play- called “the shock of recognition.” bred Goldsmith could shoot the lights out with ers from middle-American universities such as Though flush times laced with summer basket- high arching two hand set shots from “downtown” Kentucky, Toledo, and Bradley were implicated, ball, Maurice Stokes and Wilt Chamberlain no Brooklyn. His associates included Benjamin and Kutcher and company could breathe a collective longer grace this once summer ganeydn (paradise), Irving Schwartzberg, Eli Kaye, ne Klukofsky, and sigh of relief. their legacy like a haunting refrain lingers on. PAGE 7 IN THE MOUNTAINS

BOOK CORNER RESEARCH QUERY: Memoir of a Catskill Hotelkeeper Carrie Komito WHITE LAKE LODGE $12.95 paper (aka Fur Workers’ Resort) www.iuniverse.com Rachel Kranson (PhD Candidate, Carrie Komito, owner of the Aladdin Hotel for six NYU), in collaboration with The decades, left the business at the age of 95. Finally free Catskills Institute, is working on a of the routine of hotel life, she wrote memoirs about project on White Lake Lodge (also those years, with the inspiration of her son-in-law, called the Fur Workers’ Resort). If Sidney Offit, author of the wonderful novel, He Had you or anyone you know spent time it Made, and a past speaker at the Catskills Institute's there, Rachel Kranson is eager to conference. Carrie was also a past speaker. Essays hear from you. She would like to such as "Portrait of the Hotelkeeper as a Young Woman" give us a glimpse interview anyone who was a guest, into the daily life of hotel owners, their guests, and staff. Hostess, peace- employee, or performer at White maker, shadchan so many roles to play, and Carrie tells us how it went. Lake Lodge. If you have any infor- mation, please email Rachel at [email protected].

For more book listings and reviews please visit our website: http://catskills.brown.edu

Audiotapes of the 9th Archival acquisition: Annual History of the Catskills Conference are available from While we don’t usually mention all the many people who donate material to the Catskills Institute Archives, we are especially grateful for a recent acquisi- tion. CREATIVE SEMINARS Karen Fischer and Ellen Berman have donated hundreds of PO Box 203 items from the Homowack, owned by their parents Flor- West Hurley, NY 12491 ence and Irving Blickstein. In addition to postcards, bro- chures, and rate cards, there are photos, t-shirts, and finan- Phone: 845-679-6885 cial ledgers. The ledgers provide an amazing glimpse into Fax: 845-679-3060 the daily economy of a Catskills hotel. Call or write for a complete list Let this wonderful archive donation be a prompt to you – look for any items of tapes from all the you can share with us for the archives. These materials get used in scholarly conferences research, museum exhibitions, and fundraising events for shuls. CATSKILL INSTITUTE OFFICERS

President Phil Brown JOIN THE CATSKILLS INSTITUTE Vice President Deborah Dash Moore Treasurer Irwin Richman As a member you will be helping to keep alive Secretary Alan Barrish the Jewish Catskills legacy. You will receive our newsletter, complimentary reprints of arti- cles by people on the Executive Board and Ad- ADVISORY BOARD visory Board, discounts on Catskill books, and other benefits. Cynthia Arenson Tania Grossinger Ted Arenson Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg Member $25/year Lauren Bass Jenna Weissman Joselit John Conway Ben Kaplan Sustainer $50/year Shira Dicker Deborah Dash Moore Elaine Grossinger Etess Sidney Offit Donor $100/year Michael Feldberg Irwin Richman Henry Foner Arthur Tanney Patron $500/year David Gold Bernard Wax Ari Goldman Lifetime Founding Member $1000+ Catskills Institute c/o Phil Brown Dept of Sociology NEWSLETTER STAFF Brown University; Box 1916

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