The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project finishes out 2026 with more marker dedications

Western Sullivan County Historical Marker. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.

September 2026

It has been another successful year for Marisa Scheinfeld, a Brooklyn, NY-born photographer and author who is heading up a project to honour and memorialize what was once known as America’s Jewish Vacationland, colloquially known as the Borscht Belt. As the driving force behind the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, she has seen four more markers added to the historical marker trail in 2026, with the dedication of the 19th marker on 4 September in Lake Huntington, NY.

An enthusiastic crowd gathered at the entrance to Sullivan West Secondary School in Lake Huntington, the site of the former Green Acres Hotel, for the dedication of a marker for Western Sullivan County. This follows marker dedications this year for Rock Hill/Glen Wild, Ferndale and Roscoe.

Green Acres Hotel has the distinction of being the first Jewish hotel in Lake Huntington in 1920, despite a hindrance for Jewish property ownership at the time. It was one of 24 hotels and 6 bungalow colonies that once occupied western Sullivan County.

The Borscht Belt, the area was once populated with resorts and bungalow colonies that served as a summer refuge for Jewish clients from New York City, in an era when Jewish people still faced discrimination elsewhere. Many prominent comedians of the day got their start performing at the Borscht Belt hotels and bungalow colonies, like Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Totie Fields, George Burns, Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman and Joan Rivers, just to name a few.

The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project is the brainchild of Scheinfeld, who spend her youth vacationing and working in the Catskills during the last two decades of the 20th Century, when it was all fading away. The markers are part of a self-guided audio driving tour, using historical markers in selected locations throughout Sullivan County, along with plans for an assortment of related exhibitions, film screenings, comedic and musical events. Each marker commemorates the hotels and bungalow colonies that once populated that specific area.

The ceremony began with introductory remarks from Scheinfeld, the marker project’s visual coordinator, Isaac Jeffreys, the project’s Event Coordinator, David Hilfstein and David Eggleton, Principal of Sullivan West Secondary School. The 19th marker was formally unveiled, with various family members of the former hotel owners in attendance. The marker for Western Sullivan County is one of only two markers to date that have been placed on the actual location of a former hotel. All others have been placed on public property in a prominent location to that area.

After the dedication ceremony, attendees were treated to a screening of Dirty Dancing, the 1987 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey that introduced many non-Jewish Americans to the Borscht Belt, at the Historic Nutshell Music Hall, a century-old theatre in Lake Huntington.

One final dedication for the year will take place on 18 October in Wurtsboro, with more dedications to follow in the coming few years, including one on the former property of the legendary Grossinger’s Resort Hotel in Liberty, NY.

Find out more about the Borsscht Belt Historical Marker Project at https://borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org.