Summer Haven: The Catskills, the Holocaust, and the Literary Imagination

Holli Levitsky; Phil Brown

Published by Academic Studies Press 2015

Summer Haven

The Catskills, the Holocaust, and the Literary Imagination

Holli Levitsky and Phil Brown

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618114198

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume provides for the first time a collection of writing that investigates the stories and struggles of survivors in the context of the Jewish resort culture of the Catskills, through new and existing works of fiction and memoir by writers who spent their youths there. It explores how vacationers, resort owners, and workers dealt with a horrific contradiction—the pleasure of their summer haven against the mass extermination of Jews throughout Europe. It also examines the character of Holocaust survivors in the Catskills: in what ways did they people find connection, resolution to conflict, and avenues to come together despite the experiences that set them apart? The book will be useful to those studying Jewish, American, or New York history, the Holocaust and Catskills legacy, United States immigration, American literature, and American culture. The focus on themes of nostalgia, humor, loss, and sexuality will draw general readers as well.

Reviews

Jonathan Kirsch:
"[A] collection of provocative and highly illuminating essays. . . . Here we find a tight focus on the strange and powerful point of connection between the Borscht Belt, a place of escape and frolic, and the Holocaust, an event of dire gravity. . . . a unique exercise in extracting new meanings from the unlikeliest of sources."

Dr. Harvey Frommer, Dartmouth College, coauthor of It Happened in the Catskills:
"As its sub-title proclaims, Summer Haven focuses on the Catskills, the Holocaust and the Literary Imagination, how Jews came to America after experiencing the agony and horror of the Holocaust and experienced the unique and almost make-believe-funny and peaceful world of the Catskills. We are there through many pages of fiction, memoirs, essays, personal and general, reflections, and musings. The result is an evocation of a time and place, a way of life that belonged to history and now belongs to all of us fortunate enough to have this special book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED."

Eric J. Sundquist, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University, author of Strangers in the Land: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust America:
“Evoking times of great pleasure interwoven with fear and mourning, this rich collection of fiction, essays, memoirs, and inter-generational reflections shows that the Catskills, a holiday refuge, was still intimately connected to the Holocaust. Summer Haven sets the sharply rendered details of local history in a vital international context."

Alan L. Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair in Holocaust Studies, Florida Atlantic University:
Summer Haven is a must read for all those interested in Jewish culture in an American context set against the background of the Holocaust. Under the astute editorship of Holli Levitsky and Phil Brown, this volume hones in on the Catskills examining from a variety of literary perspectives how the Holocaust was experienced in this very American setting. Among the book's many achievements is its demonstration that while Jews vacationed in the Catskills, their thoughts—and nightmares—were of their persecuted European coreligionists.

Victoria Aarons, O.R. & Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature, Trinity University:
"Summer Haven brings to life the vibrant culture of the Jewish Catskills against the backdrop of the Nazi devastation of Jewish life in Europe. I know of no other book that recreates with such richness the history and character of the Catskills and the defining culture of Yiddishkeit. Peopled by refugees and survivors, the Catskills provided a haven in response to loss and displacement, a New Jerusalem, as expressed in the literary imagination, memoirs, and scholarly responses so lovingly collected in this valuable book. Summer Haven brilliantly captures a crucial part of the legacy of Jewish life in America."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Sources and Permissions Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Framing and History
Introduction Phil Brown and Holli Levitsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
Reuben Wallenrod’s Dusk in the Catskills and its Central Role in Catskills Holocaust History Holli Levitsky and Phil Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Memoirs and Conversations
A Memoir from Before My Birth Phil Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
The Holocaust, the Catskills, and the Creative Power of Loss Holli Levitsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Catskill Reflections: Testimonial, Literary, and Jewish Values in Singer’s Novel Sandor Goodhart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Legacy Michael Berenbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Imaginings and Re-imaginings
From Dusk in the Catskills Reuben Wallenrod Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Dusk in the Catskills: My Father, the Holocaust, Memories, and Reflections Naima (Wallenrod) Prevots Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
From Enemies, A Love Story Isaac Bashevis Singer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
The Holocaust, Three Women, One Man, and a Rabbi: Posthumous Reading in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Enemies, A Love Story Sandor Goodhart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
From Summer on a Mountain of Spices Harvey Jacobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Reflections on Summer on a Mountain of Spices Harvey Jacobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
From Woodridge 1946 Martin Boris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
“Not to Know the Past is to Diminish the Future”: Reflections on Woodridge 1946 Gloria Boris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
From Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, II: And Here My Troubles Began Art Spiegelman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
What We Didn’t Know Hilene Flanzbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
From Paradise, New York Eileen Pollack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Preserving the Catskills: An Exercise in Nostalgia, or Survival? Eileen Pollack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Bingo by the Bungalow Thane Rosenbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Renewal Thane Rosenbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	218
A Catskills Muse Phil Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
Reflections on “A Catskills Muse” Phil Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
From Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust Joseph Berger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Resuming Life After the War: Survivors in the Catskills Joseph Berger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
The Catskills (or What Was, Was, and Is No More) from A Jew Grows in Brooklyn Jake Ehrenreich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Reflections on A Jew Grows in Brooklyn Jake Ehrenreich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
From Dreaming in the Ninth Ezra Cappell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Balm of Gilead: Haunted in the Catskills Ezra Cappell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	300
New Imaginings and Last Days
The Four Seasons Lodge: Survivors in the Bungalow Colony Andrew Jacobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	318
Prize-Winning Essays: Fiction
Catskill Dreams and Pumpernickel Bonnie Shusterman Eizikovitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	334
Your Dovid Rita Calderon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359
Prize-Winning Essay: Non-Fiction
Forgiving God in the Catskills Michael Kirschenbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	382
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	396

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 416
Keywords: American Literary studies; Catskills resort; Holocaust survivors; Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe; Jewish resort culture; United States immigration; New York history; culture of Yiddishkeit; New Jerusalem; collection of fiction; essays; memoirs; inter-generational reflections

eBook

Published: September 16, 2015
ISBN: 9781618114198