The resorts of the Catskills’ Borscht Belt once drew millions of Jewish families escaping city summers for mountain air, lavish dining rooms and all-night entertainment. It was where generations of comedians sharpened their timing, singers found audiences and American pop culture quietly transformed itself.
Now, Broadway performer Jill Abramovitz is helping revive that world through Borscht Belt Serenade, a performance blending music, history and audience participation into what she calls “a cabaret with elements of a TED Talk and just a whisper of a bar mitzvah.”
The show, co-created with Gideon Evans, traces the rise and decline of the Catskills resort era while celebrating the cultural legacy it left behind.
“We wanted it to feel a little bit interactive, competitive, celebratory,” Abramovitz said. “You may get some candy thrown at you. You may have the opportunity to sing along.”
Though Abramovitz and Evans did not personally grow up vacationing in the Catskills during the Borscht Belt’s heyday, the region still carried deep family connections.
“My dad used to actually go with his mother to Ellenville,” Abramovitz said. Her mother vacationed at a bungalow colony in New Jersey — a more affordable alternative to the grand Catskills hotels.
Abramovitz recalled one story her mother shared about visiting a larger resort in the middle of summer.
“She remembers it was incredibly hot and the room was packed with people wearing furs and smoking cigarettes inside,” Abramovitz said, laughing. “It’s such a gorgeous image. It’s funny and also touching to me. This is a place to feel special. So we’re going to wear our fur coats.”
Music in Borscht Belt Serenade spans decades and genres, from Yiddish songs to pop standards and commercial jingles tied to the resort era’s cultural peak.
Abramovitz said the show’s soundtrack evolved naturally through the timeline of the Borscht Belt itself.
“As the times changed, the Borscht Belt and the Catskills became more symbiotic with pop culture,” she said. “There may have been more Yiddish in the beginning, and then at the end you’ve got the commercial for the Nevele … and then Neil Sedaka, who we just lost and who wrote spectacular pop hits.”
But the production does not shy away from the more bittersweet parts of the story, including the social forces that shaped the Borscht Belt’s creation and eventual decline.
“It ultimately was not what it was without the origin story,” Abramovitz said. “It gave us so many of the comedians that ripple through to this very day.”
She said honoring that history is essential to understanding why the Catskills resorts mattered beyond simple nostalgia.
“It’s part of the origin story,” she said. “It lends meaning and gives an extra layer of significance to why the Catskills and the Borscht Belt became what they became.”
What has surprised Abramovitz most is the wide range of audiences embracing the show — including younger crowds with no direct connection to the era.
For Abramovitz, that enthusiasm reflects the staying power of the Borscht Belt’s influence on American entertainment.
“It’s American,” she said. “It’s part of American comedy history.”
Borscht Belt Serenade will be performed Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Borscht Belt Museum, both in person and via livestream. More information is available at Borscht Belt Museum.
Image Credit: Andrew Alstat