Featured Events

A presentation by Borscht Belt Museum’s Peter Chester, founding board member of the museum, historian, and former Catskills hotel waiter

The Catskills resort era is well known for launching the careers of the 20th century’s most celebrated and influential comedians, from Jerry Lewis, Danny Kay, and Mel Brooks to Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, and Robert Klein. But less well known is the Borscht Belt’s origins as a utopian agrarian experiment that drew thousands of Eastern European Jews from the cramped tenements of the Lower East Side in the 19th century. Join historian Peter Chester as he takes you through the history of the Borscht Belt and its agrarian roots.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88042841045