A YIDDISH GUIDE TO THE CATSKILLS-
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
by
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
HARVEY FIERSTEIN (“Torch Song Trilogy,” “La Cage aux Follies”)
is starring in a new play titled, “Casa Valentina.” The play tells the
story of a Catskills resort in the ‘50s and ‘60s where all the men dressed
as women, despite most of them being straight.
Shown below is a Yiddish guide to the Catsklls:
“Borscht belt,” “derma road,” and “Jewish alps” are terms frequently
used by Jewish and non-Jewish historians to describe the Jewish Catskills.
“laytish” - respectable
“nit khasene gehat” - single woman
Before Europe was in vogue, before the age of backpacking and
camping singles’ clubs and computerized dating (think JDate and
ChaiExpectations) there was only one place respectable enough for
a single woman in her 20s to vacation--at Grossinger’s, the Concord,
the Nevele or similar hotels.
“yam” - ocean
“shif” - ship
“The Catskills were the Jewish version of the country club or first class
on the ocean liner.”
Elaine Markson
“raykh” (rich)
Judge Judy’s parents took her to the Catskills so that she would meet a
nice rich man.
“ovnt”/”ovntn” (evening)
Evenings in the Borscht Belt were always filled with top-flight club acts.
Stars included Martin & Lewis, Tony Bennett, Red Buttons, Joe E. Lewis,
Jimmy Durante, and Elvis. Other performers included Eddie Cantor,
Danny Kaye, Zero Mostel and Mel Brooks.
”zinger” (singer)
Eddie Cantor heard Eddie Fisher sing at Grossinger’s and put Fisher
on his national radio (“radyo”) show.
“gast” - guest
The Platters and the Village People made regular guest appearances
at Kutsher’s.
“yung” - young
“der get” - the divorce
A young Eddie Fisher (the “Jewish Frank Sinatra”) and Debbie Reynolds
launched their careers on Grossinger’s stage and were married at the
resort in 1959. They subsequently got divorced.
“klenst” - smaller
“mitog” - dinner
“shtil” - quiet
“Klap mir nit in kop arayn!” - Stop talking so much.
Barbra Streisand once landed a job in the Catskills. No, it wasn’t at
Grossinger’s, but at a smaller hotel. When she got up to sing her
opening number, “Keepin’ Out of Mischief,” the crowd was very
boisterous. They were discussing last night’s pinochle game or
arguing about the merits of what they had for dinner. The crowd
was told, “Now listen. This is one of the Bar-bra Streisand. Years
from now, you’ll be able to tell everyone (“yeder eyner”) you were
privileged enough to hear Barbra Streisand sing when she first
started out. So be quiet, and listen!”
Source: “My Life with Barbra - A Love Story” by Barry Dennen
“hoizirer; pedler - peddler
There were many peddlers with their weighted down station wagons
or trucks with goods to sell to those residing in the bungalows all
week without cars. Everything was for sale: clothing, housewares,
towels/sheets, and food. Even the locals knew these peddlers.
Yankel “the sweater man” would sell sweaters at the bungalow colonies.
There were also “portable” ferris wheels for the kids to enjoy (“hanoe
hobn fun”).
“restoran” - restaurant
“epl” - apple
“antlayen” - to borrow from
The Red Apple Rest was a cafeteria-style restaurant on New York
State Route 17, in the Southfields section of Tuxedo, New York. It
was a noted way station for people traveling to the hotels in the
Catskills Mountains. The Red Apple had much business during the
1940s and 1950s. It was open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day,
and was patronized by so-called “Borscht Belt” comedians and
professional athletes, as well as families traveling to campgrounds
and resorts.
According to Lawrence J. Epstein (“The Haunted Smile”), comedians
would stop at the Red Apple Rest at night and “would go over the
acts, describe the audience (“oylem”) and gossip (“yenteh, yachneh”)
about other comedians and about routines ripe for buying or borrowing.
According to Peter Hochstein (“Up From Seltzer,” the typical Jewish
vacation was as follows:
1st GENERATION
A bungalow in the Borscht Belt
2nd GENERATION
A resort hotel in the Borscht Belt
3rd GENERATION
Deluxe hotels in Europe
4th GENERATION
A bungalow at Club Med
“di farvaylung” - the entertainment
“kostyum” - costume
A “tummler” is a paid nonstop social director, entertainer and “fun-maker”
in those Catskills resorts that constitute the Borscht Belt.
According to Leo Rosten (“The Joys of Yinglish”), “it is the tummler’s
job to guarantee to the patrons of a summer resort that most dubious
of vacation boons: “Never a dull moment!” The tummler jokes aroun
all day long and then performs every night as a comic,singer, actor,
master of ceremonies...He wears outlandish costumes, falls off diving
boards. He leads songs like “Old Mac Donald Had a Farm” and games
like “Simon Says.”
The ideal tummler would be a cross between Milton Berle and Jerry
Lewis.
“veter” - weather
“otemen” - breathe
“der barg” - the mountain
On rainy days the tummler was an especially crucial part of the hotel
scene, enlivening lobbies and rec rooms and otherwise distracting
guests from the thought of how much they were spending to breathe
the fresh mountain air that the weather had conspired to deny them.
“mezumen” (cash)
Kutsher’s had an ATM near the lobby in case vacationers run out of
cash.
“oyfes” - poultry
Grossinger’s Hotel had on its staff a full tim “shochet”--a butcher
licensed by a rabbi to slaughter poultry.
Grossinger’s Hotel ordered 500 lbs. of Nova Scotia lox every week.
“awser” - forbidden
Grossinger’s was not the most religious hotel in the Catskills. That
position was held by the Pioneer, in nearby South Fallsburgh. At the
Pioneer guests were even forbidden to register or drive cars on the
grounds during the Sabbath.
Source: “Growing Up At Grossinger’s,” by Tania Grossinger
The hotels in the Catskills catered to people with different interests.
Kutsher’s attracted the athletes, the Raleigh and the President
catered to the dancing crowd. The Laurels got the “swingers,”
and the Concord got everything.
Tania Grossinger
“mikve”/”mikveh” - ritual bathhouse
An ad in the Forward read:
CATSKILLS TOWN OF FALLSBURG, VILLAGE OF WOODRIDGE,
NEW YORK
76 ACRES OF FLAT LAND. BUILDABLE SITE. GREAT LOCATION.
Walking distance to Village, House of Worship and Mikveh. (914)..
“vitz”/”chochmeh - joke
Red Buttons worked as a singing and joking bellboy at a Catskills
resort. The uniform’s big buttons, combined with his red hair,
earned him a stage name that stuck.
In 1998, Amy Godine gave a talk at the 4th Annual History of the
Catskills at the Sunny Oaks Hotel in Woodbridge, N. Y. It was titled,
“From Haimishe to Highbrow: The Adirondack Alternative.”
Irwin Richman wrote a book titled, “Borscht Belt Bungalows: Memories
of Catskill Summers.”
“di velt” - the world
Billy Crystal wrote about the legendary Catskills, “...the only mountain
range in the world that if Osama bin Laden was hiding there, somebody
would say to him, “Oh, so you’re single!”
Source: “700 Sundays” by Billy Crystal
“toyznt” - thousand
“groys” - large
Billy Crystal describes Kutsher’s: “And they had this gigantic dining
room. The energy was astounding, a thousand Jews fighting over
end cuts...We walked into the Kutsher’s nightclub, and that’s when I
saw my first comedian. [He said], “Good evening ladies and Jews.”
“lontsh” (lunch)
Mel Brooks was a pool tummler. He describes a tummler as someone
who “wakes up the Jews when they fall asleep around the pool after
lunch. He used to do an act where he wore a derby and an alpaca
coat, and would carry two rock-laden cardboard suitcases and go to
the edge of the diving board and say, “Business is nogood!” (“nisht gut”)
and jump off. Of course, his suitcases (“tshemodan”) would take him
right to the bottom and his derby would float on the surface. He looked
up at the blond, gentile lifeguard who would have mercy. Dive down
and save me (laughs).
Source: Las Vegas Weekly
“bagazh” - luggage
“koyshbol” - basketball
In 1954, Wilt Chamberlain worked as a bellboy at Kutsher’s Country
Club. By day he was making $2 an hour and getting great tips from
the awestruck guests as he lifted their luggage through a second floor
window while standing outside on the ground. At night he played on
the Kutsher’s basketball team.
“kaledzh”/”koledzh” - college
College basketball was a major sport in the N.Y. area and some guests
were even known to choose a hotel according to who was playing on
the team.
“zis” - sweet
“shmutsik” - dirty
The Catskills have been the setting for movies such as “Dirty Dancing,”
“Sweet Lorraine” and “Walk on the Moon.”
“yoyvlin” - celebrate
Ten days before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, he was in
the Catskills. He appeared at the Concord Hotel and spoke before
a Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement. He was there
to celebrate the 60th birthday of Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who had
joined King in his civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
“mishpokhe” - family
“sezon” - season
THE PITTSBURGH PRESS (Sunday, July 23, 1950) wrote:
SUMMER RESORTS BOON FOR NEW YORK ENTERTAINERS.
The Nevele Country Club in Ellenville was started by the Slutsky
family. The resort business really began to boom in the late 1930s
and the Nevele began to use B’way entertainers. The resorts
operated with “social staffs,” young actors an actresses who worked
for little more than room and board for the season. From these staffs
came Jan Murray, Danny Kaye, Robert Merrill, Jan Pierce and
Regina Resnick, to name a few.
“kelner” - waiter
Marvin Welkowitz, whose parents owned a hotel, said, “In my time
as a waiter, it was gimme-gimme-gimme, and the food would keep
on coming out. Whatever they wanted--blintzes, kreplach and
comedian, were the pillars of Catskills life.”
“feter” - uncle
Lou Goldstein (AKA “Uncle Lou”) worked as a social director/tummler
at Grossinger’s.
“fleysh” - meat
“kokteyl” - cocktail
On Friday and Saturday nights, Grossinger’s held cocktail parties.
The young men eyed each female guest as if it was a “meat market.”
The mating ritual also took place by the pool. An endless stream of
young men and women posed and flirted in order to guarantee
(“garantirn”) a date for the evening.
“shlisl” - key
“kvetch” - to complain
Henny Youngman joked about what the guests said about the Swan
Lake Inn: “You should see my room. I put the key in the door and it
breaks the window. When I complained, they gave me a room
without a window.”
Youngman also said, “Madam, the food at the Swan Lake Inn is fit
for a king. Here, King! Here, King!”
The Borscht Belt is known for its “kok-aleyns”--self-catered boarding
houses.
Some bungalow colonies even advertised the facilities of the hotel
next door. The bungalow colony “crasher” carried the definitive dead
give-away--a flashlight.
Source: “Remember the Catskills - Tales by a Recovering Hotelkeeper”
by Esterita (Cissie) Blumberg.
“taynen” - to argue
“di por” - the couple
Henny Youngman once saw a couple arguing in the lobby at the
Swan Lake Inn. To break the tensions he would say, “Here’s a
fastidious couple. She’s fast, and he’s hideous.”
The social staff at the Catskills hotels used the word “pots” to
represent the women who never got asked to dance.
“kokoshes” - popcorn
Henny Youngman was the quintessential borscht belt comic. A
quote: “I’ll never forget my first words in the theatre. “Peanuts.
Popcorn.”
“shreklekh” (terrible)
Two elderly women are at a Catskills restaurant. One of them says,
“Boy, the food at this place is just terrible.” The other says, “Yeah,
I know. And such small portions.”
Alvy Singer, “Annie Hall”
“fayer” - fire
The Tamarack Lodge caught fire in 2012. 30 buildings were partially
or completely destroyed.
”vitsikayt” - wit
Bill De Young wrote (Feb. 24, 2004) about Jackie Mason:
A “veteran performer whose razor-sharp wit and impeccable timing
were polished over many years in Borsht Belt nightclubs.
“broyt” (bread)
Mason wrote, “In the mountains, you took a piece of bread and took a
bite and threw it away. Then you took a piece of meat and took a bite
and then you took a chicken...there is no describing the sheer volume
of the food. This is what they paid for, the guests. The illusion of
voluptuous, bountiful tables of food without end. To boast, when you
got home: “You had four main courses for lunch? We had eight and
then we had the two-course snack before dinner.”
The former Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen, N. Y. was converted
into a summer camp for Hassidic girls. Officials of the state Dept.
of Health ordered the property evacuated in July 2009, citing health
and safety violations.
KlezKamp, which is held at the Hudson Valley Resort & Spa
(formerly the Granit), has described the hotel as follows:
A modern hotel “mit alle mayles” (with all the trimmings).
The hotel owners advise KlezKamp guests: Don’t bring tuxedos or
fancy-shmancy wear; we run a pretty informal affair. Instead, bring
comfortable clothes which can be layered and/or mixed and matched
and comfortable shoes for dancing, too.
There’s a Yiddish proverb: “Me vert alt vi a ku, un lernt zikh alts tsu.”
(You get old as a cow, but you still go on learning.)
“di opozitsye” (the opposition)
In 1987, New York’s mayor, Ed Koch, proposed buying the Gibber
Hotel in Kiamesha Lake to house the homeless. The idea was
opposed by local officials. The hotel instead became a religious school,
like many old hotels in the Catskills.
“zumer” (summer)
Henny Youngman said, “Camp Hiawatha, Camp Seneca--that’s where
the Jewish kids go for the summer. Camp Ginsburg is where the
Indian kids go.”
“moger” (slender)
Someone once asked Sylvia Lyons, the wife of Leonard Lyons, the
New York Post columnist, how to slenderize at Grossinger’s. She
replied, “Go home.”
“keyn mol nit” - never
He’Brew, The Chosen Beer (“bir”), Chozen Ice Cream, and
Halvah-filled donuts were NEVER served in the Catskills. :-)
In 1956 a comedian named Shecky Greene, earned $300 for
performing at Grossinger’s.
“meshuge” - crazy
Jerry Weiss wrote about the weekly showcase at the Brickman Hotel.
The ringside seat were reserved for agents and TV casting people.
One night a comedienne came on. She was outspoken, so nutty,
so crazy that Weiss said, “She’s a nut. You can’t book that girl.”
That girl was Bette Midler.
Sid Caesar started his career at the Avon Lodge.
“umgevyntlekh” - unusual
When Labor Day rolled around, $3,000 to $5,000 in earnings for
Catskills waiters was not unusual.
“imigrant” - immigrant
Jenna Weissman Joselit wrote, “...the Catskill Mountain, north of
New York City, they enabled the children of immigrants to perfect
their swing or their backhand, master the latest dance step and
otherwise indulge in summer’s manifold pleasures--all within the
company of their own kind.”
Source: Forward, Aug. 30, 2004
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MARJORIE GOTTLIEB WOLFE agrees that
If it’s not the Bible Belt
and it’s not the Rust Belt
it must be the Borscht Belt.
She remembers the endless hallways at Grossinger’s Hotel, where she
would run up and down, and the huge grand porches that her parents
used to relax on and visit with friends from Rockaway Beach (Arverne).
___________________________________________ Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
