SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — History enthusiasts gathered outside Sullivan West High School to celebrate the installation of the 19th marker of the Borscht Belt marker project on Friday, September 4.

The Borscht Belt was a vacation destination in the Catskills in the 1920s, with over 500 resorts and 50,000 bungalow colonies. It was marketed toward Jewish people during a time of high antisemitic sentiment. 

The Borscht Belt is also a place where stand-up comedy was founded and refined. 

The marker project was established in August 2022, and the first marker was installed in May 2023. Markers are in locations like Monticello, Livingston Manor and Ellenville. 

On September 4, a marker was dedicated on the site of Green Acres, Lake Huntington’s first Jewish-owned hotel, where families of all religions and races were welcomed. 

“Green Acres Hotel once stood on this property before a fire destroyed it in 1966,” founder and project director Marisa Scheinfeld said. “The hotel was purchased in 1920 by Elmer Rosenberg, a Hungarian Jewish labor leader who became the first Jewish hotelman in Lake Huntington.”

Scheinfeld added that the Borscht Belt was also home to “black, Polish [and] Italian communities.” 

The grandson of Rosenberg, Paul Blumberg, was welcomed to the podium, where he shared his experiences of antisemitism growing up and the importance of Green Acres history.

“My sister and I went to Narrowsburg Central Rural School,” he said. “My sister Amy wanted to be an artist, but the art teacher would send her to the nurse every art class because she didn’t want to teach Jews.”

Blumberg shared that he was called offensive slurs by his peers until he learned how to fight. 

“Jewish people at that time could only have certain jobs; they could only go to certain colleges,” he said.

Blumberg told the River Reporter that there was a quota on how many Jewish people could attend a college, including Syracuse, from which his mother graduated. 

Blumberg said that when his family bought Green Acres, it was already saddled with debt. 

“We considered it a good year when we didn’t have to borrow too much to open in the spring,” he said.

Though the Lake Huntington hotel ultimately closed—it was struck with lightning and burned down—a new, more successful location opened in Loch Sheldrake, where Blumberg’s family bought the New Roxy hotel. The 12th Borscht Belt marker stands there now. 

“It was a statement of protest against what we were allowed to do and where we were allowed to vacation,” Blumberg said, about the importance of the hotel. 

The next marker will be installed outside the Mamakating Historical Society on October 18 in Wurtsboro. 

Learn more about the marker project at www.borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org/about-us, and the 12th marker at www.borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org/loch-sheldrake.