By Jerry Klinger
FALLSBURG, New York — Who would have “thunk” it? Murder, you said? In the Borscht Belt?
Yes, and Yes and Yes, but in different ways.
The dedication of the 12th marker in the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, Loch Sheldrake, was unveiled with regalement, nostalgia and historical significance July 17, 2025. North of 100 people attended.
Loch Sheldrake, a census-defined area, is a hamlet within the town of Fallsburg, located in Sullivan County, New York, far better known as the Borscht Belt. Census-defined is a nice way of saying tiny, within a small town, within a once destination/vacation center 90 miles north of New York City, formerly known as the “Borscht Belt.”
The vacationers were heavily Jewish, of Eastern European backgrounds, who demanded Borscht, Beet Soup, with a boiled potato, a generous glop of sour cream, and a half loaf of seeded Jewish rye bread on the side. Maybe a whole stick of butter too.
Finding a bowl of Borscht today in the Borscht Belt is a challenge. It’s easier to get a bottle of Super Beets for heart health. Who wants Borscht anyway?
From the 1920s through the 1960s, lingering on until its demise in the 1980s, the Borscht Belt was the vacation destination for millions of escapees from New York City.
During the Borscht Belt era, Sullivan and parts of adjacent Ulster County, but mainly Sullivan County, had ~ 500 hotels and ~ 50,000 bungalows. If you wanted a Kosher Hotel, there were Kosher hotels. If you wanted non-kosher hotels (most of them) you had non-kosher hotels. If you wanted an Italian hotel, a vegetarian hotel, a nudist hotel, a political hotel, a specific socio-economic hotel, an integrated hotel, even a hotel that catered specifically to American Blacks who also wanted to escape New York, the Borscht Belt had them.
Escapees escaped to the Jewish Alps, the name given to the small hills of the Borscht Belt. Not too many Jews were interested in mountain climbing after completing a ten-course meal three times a day with an afternoon snack of sixteen choices of cake. Wobbling outside to a lounge by the pool, plotzing (lying spread-eagled) before a view of one of the many lakes and a good snooze before dinner, followed by an incredible evening of the finest entertainment imaginable, was the machiah – “the blessed life”.
Hotel upon Hotel, Bungalow community upon Bungalow community, often a few acres from each other, struggled to differentiate themselves.
And the best part, antisemitism was not served on the menu anywhere.
In season, the Borscht Belt was crowded. Loch Sheldrake was less crowded than other areas with about four score hotels and bungalow communities. Loch Sheldrake was crowned by the famed Browns Hotel that attracted some of the biggest names in American comedy and music. Comedian Jerry Lewis was a long-time personal friend of the Browns’ owners. He stared at the Browns nightclub named in his honor.
The Browns Hotel was said to be the inspirational setting for Kellerman’s Hotel, for the 1987 Borscht Belt romantic drama dance film Dirty Dancing. The Loch Sheldrake hotel (invented) was mentioned by name in the film. The Browns Hotel looks nothing like Kellerman’s. Dirty Dancing was filmed in the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. Oye! The movie was a smashing success.
Loch Sheldrake did have one differentiating characteristic. No Jewish mother would proudly say my son is a successful executive in Murder Inc.
Murder Incorporated was a contractual enforcement arm of the Brooklyn-based Jewish and Italian cooperating organized mobs, the National Crime Syndicate. Murder Inc. were cold-blooded Jewish and Italian thugs nurtured in the tenement life of New York City. Until Murder Inc. was taken down by law enforcement’s Tom Dewey in the 1940s, they were said to have enforced contracts on 300-1000 victims.
One of the most vicious murderers was Albert Tennenbaum. His family owned a small hotel in Loch Sheldake. One of Tennenbaum’s contracts was buried in the drainage lines of his family’s swimming pool. The Borscht Belt was the site for about seven murders. A number of them went to the bottom of Loch Sheldrake. There might have been more, but who knows…
From Borscht to Jerry Lewis to Murder Inc., Loch Sheldrake was “special.”
The text of the double-sided marker reads:
Side 1
From the 1920s through the early 1970s, the Borscht Belt was the preeminent summer resort destination for hundreds of thousands of predominantly East Coast American Jews. The exclusion of the Jewish community from existing establishments in the 1920s drove Jewish entrepreneurs to create over 500 resorts, 50,000 bungalows, and 1,000 rooming houses in Sullivan County and parts of Ulster County. The Borscht Belt provided a sense of community for working and vacationing Jews. The era exerted a strong influence on American culture, particularly in the realm of entertainment, music, and sports. Some of the most well-known and influential people of the 20th century worked and vacationed in the areas. Beginning around 1960, the Borscht Belt began a gradual demise due to many factors, including the growth of suburbia, inexpensive airfare, and generational changes.
Side 2
Originally Sheldrake Pond, Loch Sheldrake had about 48 hotels such as Brown’s, Edgewood, Evans, Holiday, Karmel, New Roxy, Riverside Hotel, Shady Nook and about 36 bungalow colonies including Kushners, Pesekows, and Melamed’s Villa.
From 1929 to 1941, Murder Inc., an organized crime group of Jewish and Italian mobsters from New York City, frequented the Catskills. Some of their victims perished in the lake, with one making national headlines in 1939.
Opening in 1944, Brown’s Hotel offered supreme entertainment and atmosphere. The Brown family had a long relationship with comedian Jerry Lewis and put his name on their nightclub, the only one in the Borscht Belt named for a celebrity.
The Jerry Lewis Theater Club presented acts such as Harry Belafonte, Totie Fields, Dean Martin, Woody Allen, Sammy Shore, Liberace, and others. Hotel Evans is embedded in boxing history. Jimmy Braddock, Marcel Cerdan, and others trained at the resort. The Karmel Hotel later became Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp.
The twenty-marker system is funded by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. It is only possible because of the dedicated hard work of the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project’s remarkable team led by Marisa Scheinfeld, with support from Sullivan County’s historian, John Conway.
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Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation