Marisa Scheinfeld grew up in the Borscht Belt and has many connections to this project. It is a personal project – depicting the landscape of her childhood and the childhood of hundreds of thousands of people who vacationed, celebrated and worked at its resorts and bungalow colonies
A book talk is taking place Sunday, April 23 at 2:00 PM at the Scarsdale Public Library. The talk is being sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America
This photography and text based book presents a contemporary view of the many abandoned hotels and bungalow colonies of the Catskills Borscht Belt — as you may know once an internationally known vacation destination offering its visitors leisure and entertainment and comprised of over 500 hotels and 50,000 bungalow colonies.The Borscht Belt was a place that brought together many people, and forged families, friendships, collective and personal memories and histories with many extending to the present day. The era had a tremendous impact on American history, American Jewish history, Catskill history and the history of NY State. The Borscht Belt has also been made known in popular culture with movies such as Dirty Dancing, A Walk on the Moon, and the era earned a place in history as being the birthplace of stand up comedy with names such as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and Joan Rivers getting their starts in the regions many theaters and showrooms.
“These photographs capture the decay of what once a rich cultural tapestry. I can even visualize it all coming back to life….the fun, the joy…places where I grew up, as a woman and a performer.”
“Great. Weird and Sad.”
Marc Maron, stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, musician, director, and producer
