Lori Kaminsky
knocks 'on dead
as the gain dance
instructoi:

The Catskills: Then and Now

Mention the Nevele to Irwin Richman or other Catskills fans and
they'll quickly tell you how the landmark hotel got its name: The
owners had 11 children, hence the word "eleven" spelled backward.
That's just one of the quirky historical tidbits associated with the
Borscht Belt, the legendary "place in the country" where Eddie
Fisher and Buddy Hackett once shared a stage at the Tamarack, where
Muhammed Ali trained for bouts with Joe Frazier at the Concord and
where Lou Goldstein led wacky rounds of "Simon Sez" at
Grossinger's.
Richman, an American studies professor at Pennsylvania State
University and author of two recent books on the Catskills, grew up
working in his family's now-defunct bungalow colony in Woodbourne
and has spent at least part of his entire 63 summers in the Mountains.
"I remember those days very vividly," he says, recalling the
Catskills' heyday in the '50s, '60s and early '70s as a vacation play-
ground for urban Jews. "At one time there were as many as 500
hotels operating at once ... now you can count them on the fingers of
one hand. A lot of the hotels and bungalow colonies (cottage devel-
opments) have been taken over by Hassidics and modern Orthodox,"
while others have given way to yoga or Zen meditation centers, drug
rehab programs, condo developments or simply were abandoned.
THEN AND Now on page S30

Borscht Belt Memories

Hannah Moss
dresses fir inah
jongg and bingo.

Much has changed about the Catskills, including the come-
dians' schtick.
"The jokes are different," observes David Moskowitz, a
Southfield retiree who took an Elderhostel vacation a few
years ago in one of the region's few surviving resorts.
"Before, it was predominantly Jewish, ethnic-style jokes.
Now, with the mixed clientele — church groups, veterans
groups, bus tours — it's mostly senior jokes."
Moskowitz and his wife, May, natives of the Bronx,
vacationed often in the Catskills in their younger years and
revisited twice in the '90s for family reunions. Here, they
and other metro Detroiters share memories of what gave
the old Borscht Belt its distinctive flavor:
"We used to go every year to stay with rich relatives,"
May Moskowitz says. "The big thing, if you had a bunga-
low, was sneaking into the big hotels — that's what you did
on Saturday nights."
Her husband recalls the early rooming houses, called
kuchaleyn (cook for yourself), where guests shared a com-
munity kitchen. "Every family had its own little two-burner
stove. There was no privacy at all — you watched other
people cook," he says.
Lee Brook, also of Southfield, worked as a Catskills wait-
er and returned to vacation with his family in the late '60s.
MEMORIES on page S30