THE MUSEUM
A Home with History
Beginning with a pop-up exhibit in July 2023, the Borscht Belt Museum made its home at 90 Canal Street, in Ellenville, N.Y. The museum building is a glorious Neo-Georgian gem built in 1928 for the Home National Bank. For more than a half century the bank helped nurture hundreds of local hoteliers and bungalow colony owners whose ambitions, grit and self-sacrifice defined the resort era.
The Borscht Belt Museum celebrates the golden age of the Catskills resort era, when millions of urban dwellers sought refuge in the mountains of upstate New York, leaving deep imprints on mainstream American culture, from stand-up comedy and comfort food to mid-century modern design and popular concepts of leisure.
The permanent museum will open in 2025. A pop-up exhibit, Vacationland! Catskills Resort Culture 1900-1980, welcomes visitors beginning in early July 2023 through November 12th.
Architectural renderings of the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum by Architecture in Formation www.aifny.com.
The museum will be a dynamic, interactive experience crafted to appeal to baby boomers and Gen Z audiences alike. Immersive moments and imaginative visual elements will appeal to social media aficionados. A rich array of archival film and audio will bring to life the celebrities and comedians whose appearances transformed the Catskills into a way station on the American pop culture circuit in the decades after World War II.
The museum will offer a rich array of adult public programming including lecture and film series along with interpretive materials for educators (grades K-12) and interactive activities and workshops for family audiences.
Curatorial Mission
The Borscht Belt Museum will not solely focus on entertainment, glamour and design. Its curatorial mission will include weightier themes and narratives embodied by the era; the antisemitism that spurred the creation of a Jewish vacationland, the refuge the Catskills provided to African-Americans, Irish-Americans, L.G.B.T.Q. and other communities, and the forces of assimilation and tolerance that eventually helped fuel the grand resort era’s decline.
In addition to its permanent core exhibition, the museum will have space for temporary and visiting shows, ensuring the institution delivers fresh interest to audiences and remains culturally relevant over time. The Catskills continues to serve as a refuge for all – an ethos that will find voice in the museum’s curatorial mission.
“No Hebrews Entertained”
The Borscht Belt was born out of bigotry. At the turn of the 20th century, hotel advertisements in the region often used phrases like “No Hebrews Allowed” and “Gentiles Only” to keep out Jewish patrons. This 1902 advertisement from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle features The Nichols in Liberty, N.Y.
In a delicious twist of history, a Jewish family by the name of Grossinger would later purchase the hotel and absorb it into the sprawling and iconic resort complex that bore their name.
The Collection
The nonprofit museum committee has access to a significant collection of Borscht Belt ephemera. Notable items in the museum’s collection include an expressionist sculpture rescued from demolition and now displayed outside the former Ellenville train depot, and a historically significant and visually spectacular neon sign that once adorned Kutsher’s Hotel.
Content for the museum will be developed with our collaborative partner, The Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, and it will have a strong online component and a rich trove of archival material developed in association with The Catskills Institute at Northeastern University
The Catskills Borscht Belt Museum accepts donations of objects and archival materials that are historically significant. For more information about making a donation, visit our Donate page.