Travel Photo Journal 8: Amherst: The Yiddish Book Center: Molly Picon to Kutshers
Panorama of the Yiddish Book Center
Panorama: some of interior showing book stacks of duplicate Yiddish books for sale
The Yiddish Book Center is on the Hampshire College Campus. This is another place I have written about over the years;
Aaron Lansky, its founder, made it his personal mission to save every Yiddish book he could, and he has, over decades, done so. The books have been rescued from all over the world and are in the process of being translated and uploaded to the internet.
There is always an interesting exhibit, and the collections on Jewish culture and Yiddish authors are fascinating.
The Current major exhibit: Photography by Marisa Scheinfeld: Echoes from The Borscht Belt
Appropos, I just saw the movie Welcome to Kutshers, the trailer of which which will provide an excellent explanation of what the Borscht Belt was, and why the Scheinfeld exhibit is so touching.
The Catskill Mountains and The Borscht Belt were synonymous: it was the area three hours north of New York City where Jews would vacation–if they had the money, in one of the hundreds of hotels or bungalow colonies. People would spend their honeymoons there; I spent my first honeymoon in the Nevele Hotel. These were places where the guests felt right at home; there was plenty of fabulous food and there were activities, and no religious/cultural discrimination, unlike other places.
But eventually the world expanded and vacations were spent all over the world. People traveled far and wide, and the hotels in the Borscht Belt declined, emptied and were deserted. The last to go was Kutshers. Marisa Scheinfeld, who lived in the Catskills, left us with a sad but wonderful photo documentary of the end of Borscht Belt.
The typical hotel menu
hotel souvenirs
Sue, loved the old pics and things from years ago, at the old vacation spots.
We had visited Kutchers years ago just to see what it was like. Some areas of the hotel were very run down. The ceilings in the lobby leaked. The elevators smelled faintly of urine. The place clearly was in need of a face lift. I saw a mouse running around the dining room. I actually got to meet Helen Kutcher while we stayed there. She must have been over 90 years old. She was telling stories of famous people who stayed there.
Wonderful, informative post!!