It's been a while since I heard so much talk about the Catskills.

About Grossinger's, the Concord, the Nevele and Kutsher's. About Brown’s and the Pines, Stevensville, and the Raleigh. The Paramount, Nemerson, Fallsview and The Windsor. The Homowack, Tamarack, Delmar and The Heiden. Laurels, Evans, Brickman, and New Roxy.  

Gradus and Gibber’s and Gilbert’s. Oy My!

From The Aladdin to Zucker’s Glen Wild and my favorite, The Shady Nook in Loch Sheldrake, there’s been a run on remembering the Catskills. Or as some still fondly refer to this region as the Borscht Belt. 

Not that folks have ever stopped talking about the Catskills. It’s been up for discussion for nearly two centuries. Clean air. Clear waters. Majestic vistas. Close enough to easily escape the City but just far enough to make us a vacation destination.

But watch TV or scroll on social media. New stories, old clips, comedy shows, late-night television, movies, theater, there’s been a revived reference to our Catskills: 

• ‘A Walk on the Moon,’ a musical adaptation of the 1999 romantic film of an unfulfilled Jewish housewife and mother vacationing with her family in the Catskills in 1969, opens next month off-Broadway.
• We Met at Grossinger’s is a nostalgic film that tells the rise and fall of Grossinger’s.
• The Mountains is a new scripted series headed by original Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, bringing to life Grossinger’s and the glory days of the Catskills. 
• The Catskills is a feature-length documentary film on the rise and fall of the Borscht Belt.
• Ringside in the Mountains: A History of Boxing in the Catskills is a documentary that unearths the remarkable tale of how the Catskills became a training ground for generations of boxing greats. Evan Haiman interviewed boxers, historians, hotel owners, hotel guests, and journalists, including yours truly, to tell this long-overlooked story. 

This is the time of year when the Catskills would come to life.

When tens of thousands of folks would be drawn out of the city and up to the mountains on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend - what we used to call Decoration Day Weekend - for the unofficial start of the summer season.

When Helen Kutsher, Elaine Grossinger-Etess, Lillian Brown, Harriet Ehrlich, and thousands of resort matriarchs who knew the first names of guests as they welcomed them back, would ask, “How was your winter?” “Are the grandkids coming up?” “Do you need a fourth for mahjong?”

When herring filled stomachs during the day and Henny filled the casino at night. When people went to the casino to see shows and not play the slots. When you were more likely to see a hackie than a hiker.

When waiters and busboys appeased many a particular palate with an endless supply of lox and herring and yea, borscht. Hot and cold. 

When driving around Kiamesha Lake, you could see the white towers that stood above the green pine trees that gave the Concord its unique and commanding Catskills look.

When motorists heading towards Liberty on the “quickway” were welcomed with the sight of the Tudor-style buildings of Grossinger’s and the fabled “Jenny G” tower.

When sign after sign alerted travelers on Old Route 17 that they were nearing the Red Apple Rest, or a caricature of Jerry Lewis would proclaim that “Brown’s is my favorite resort!” When massive, stacked billboards would point the way to any one of the 500 large and small hotels, 50,000 bungalows or 1,000 rooming houses that would line our country roads or be tucked away behind tall pines. 

When the Borscht Belt was the envied tourism mecca that a whole lot of folks like myself are not ready to forget. 

The Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville celebrates the golden age of the Catskills resort era, which left a deep imprint on mainstream American culture, from stand-up comedy and comfort food to mid-century modern design and popular concepts of leisure. The main exhibit, “And Such Small Portions!” highlights food and comedy in the Catskills Resort Era. There’s a recreated 1960’s bungalow kitchen and a replica of a 1970’s Kutsher’s hotel room in the museum’s stunning bank vault. Visit www.borschtbeltmuseum.org.

Marisa Scheinfeld, a photojournalist raised in the Catskills whose book The Borscht Belt documented the remains of the resorts, continues her work with Sullivan County Historian John Conway on the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project to designate places of importance and impact on the legacy of the Catskills. The group kicks off the 2026 season with the dedication of its 16^th historic marker at 4 p.m. on June 28 at 9 Ferndale Road, across from the Mobil station. For future marker dedications, visit: www.borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org.