New museum celebrating the Borscht Belt to open in July

A new museum celebrating the glory days of the Borscht Belt is slated to open this summer.

According to a New York Post report, The Borscht Belt Museum will open in a former bank in Ellenville on July 28. The museum is being spearheaded by author and archivist Allen J. Frishman, who seeks to preserve the Jewish cultural heritage of the Catskills region.

“We want to show people this piece of history that is being lost continuously here,” said Frishman. “This is preservation. It”™s so important to save this part of Americana.”

The Borscht Belt was the name given to a constellation of resort, small hotels and bungalow colonies durng the first half of the 20th century that catered to a Jewish client base. During those years, lodging establishments would often refuse to accommodate Jewish guests, and this gave rise to an alternative lodging environment that flourished during the summer months.

The Borscht Belt also brought forth a disproportionately high number of comedians who had their first exposure by providing entertainment to the vacationers at the hotels and resorts. Among the future stars who had their first exposure in this setting were Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar and Jackie Mason.

Into the late 1960s, the appeal of the Borscht Belt declined and many of the establishments began to close. Frishman will be providing the museum with memorabilia from his private collection, which he accumulated when he worked as the building inspector for Fallsburg, the Catskills town that was once home to multiple hotels.

“We are going to have a Borscht Belt Festival weekend,” he said about his July opening. We”™ll have comedians, movies and talks. It will be the building of a larger project. There is a new interest in the Catskills from the younger generation.”

Photo: Brown’s Hotel in Loch Sheldrake; 1977 photo courtesy of the Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons