The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland

Experience the images of acclaimed photographer and author Marisa Scheinfeld as she brings the storied past of the Catskills to life. Through her stunning photographs and insightful storytelling, Scheinfeld reveals the haunting beauty and complex history of the abandoned Borscht Belt resorts, sites that once pulsed with Jewish culture, laughter, and summer escape.

View the past in images from today, where Marisa Scheinfeld’s powerful photographs revive the haunting beauty and rich Jewish heritage of the once-thriving Catskills resorts.

“The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland” was developed and curated by Marisa Scheinfeld and Yeshiva University Museum.

---

Plan Your Visit

Experience a slice of American life.

Visit The Museum

 

Plan your visit to The FHM and explore impactful stories.

---

About Marisa Scheinfeld  

Marisa Scheinfeld is a Jewish-American photographer and author who was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1980 and raised in the Catskills. She received her B.A. from the State University at Albany in 2002, and her MFA from San Diego State University in 2011. Her work is motivated by an interest in regional landscape and its myriad histories, both apparent and hidden, and a drive to use the medium of photography as an act of preservation. 

Marisa’s work is among the collections of the Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The Center for Jewish History, The National Yiddish Book Center, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley and the Museum of Photographic Arts. Her work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, Paper Magazine, Village Voice, the Journal of American Culture, and the American Historical Association. 

In the fall of 2016, Cornell University Press released her first book The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland. In the fall of 2022, she co-founded the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, a multi-faceted initiative that celebrates and cements the famed Borscht Belt era via the creation of a large-scale historic marker trail in the Catskills. Marisa is currently an Adjunct Professor of Photography at SUNY Purchase and working on her second book which explores hidden, alternative and fringe histories of the Catskills and Hudson Valley.