Mention the Catskills and most Jews immediately call to mind the Borscht Belt. But as Stephen Silverman, a Time Inc. veteran, and Raphael Silver, a real estate developer and film producer, demonstrate in a richly illustrated volume titled “The Catskills,” the region has far more stories to tell than a Grossinger’s entertainer.
The story begins in 1609, when Henry Hudson sailed up the river now named for him seeking the northwest passage to Asia. The search was futile, but Hudson claimed the territory for the Netherlands. A trading post was established a few years later and settlement followed, with the English taking over in 1664. Soon after, the Catskills became an active center of American social, economic and cultural history.
The Catskills saw military action in the Revolutionary War: Kingston, New York’s first capital, was burned to the ground by the British, but shortly became known as the setting for the works of both Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, the first American writers to win international recognition. The artists of the Hudson River School — Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Church — dramatized the mountains, which were also home to a series of exploitative and short-lived industries. Among them: tanneries that denuded the hemlock forests and bluestone quarries whose stones paved New York City. The steamboat and railroads turned the Catskills into a resort area, starting with the grand Catskill Mountain House and its commanding view of the Hudson and proud exclusion of Jews. In fact, Jews did not enter the Catskills until the late 19th century, halfway through the book, when homes of failing farmers became boarding houses for working-class city Jews. They were precursors of the grandiose Jewish resorts of the postwar years. These resorts had their day in the sun until, facing a decline in popularity, they added one attraction after the next and outdid themselves into extinction.
These are a few of the stories in the up-and-down history of the Catskills, which the book recounts in fragmented episodes rather than in a continuing narrative. Readers may sometimes find it difficult to grasp an overall picture of the region and its part in U.S. history. But the cast of characters and illustrations are irresistble.
Review provided by the Jewish Book Council, www.jewishbookcouncil.org
“The Catskills: Its History and How It Changed America” by Stephen M. Silverman and Raphael D. Silver (Random House, 464 pages)