Borscht Belt Revisited: Catskills' Golden Era

May 6, 2025, 6:30 p.m.

Location: Poughkeepsie Public Library, Boardman Road Branch (141 Boardman Rd)

Join us for a visual presentation and Q&A with photographer Marisa Scheinfeld, author of the book The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America's Jewish Vacationland. This illustrated lecture features Scheinfeld’s photographs of abandoned sites where resorts, hotels and bungalow colonies once boomed in the Catskill Mountains. The images were made inside and outside locations that once buzzed with life as year-round havens for generations of people. In her talk, Scheinfeld discusses the rise, fall, and impact of the Borscht Belt along with the deeper, more layered meaning she finds in the series, as well as her current work with the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project.

A collaboration between the Loeb and the Poughkeepsie Public Library District, this talk is presented in conjunction with Great Green Hope for the Urban Blues, the Loeb's current special exhibition. The show explores two centuries of art and myths of the Hudson Valley, and includes one of Scheinfeld’s Borscht Belt photographs.

Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Register for the talk here.