Borscht Belt

Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the (now mostly defunct) summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in upstate New York. Borscht, a soup associated with immigrants from eastern Europe, was a euphemistic way of saying "Jewish". These resorts were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews between the 1920s and the 1970s. Beginning in the 1980s the growth of air travel made the Catskills less attractive.

Most Borscht Belt resorts hosted traveling Jewish comedians and musicians, and many who later became famous began their careers there.

Analogously to usage such as "Bible Belt", the term "Borscht Belt" references the geographic area in the Catskills in which lodges featured borscht, a beet-based soup popular among Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who brought it to the United States. The dish in question is a traditional lunch or dinner staple of Russian, Polish and Ukrainian cuisine, typically served as the first course of an afternoon meal.

Borscht Belt hotels, bungalow colonies, summer camps, and קאָך-אַליינס kokh-aleyns (a Yiddish name for self-catered boarding houses, literally, "cook-alones") were frequented by middle and working class Jewish New Yorkers, mostly Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants and their children and grandchildren, particularly in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s who, due to antisemitism, were often denied accommodation in hotels and vacation resorts. Because of this, the area was also nicknamed the Jewish Alps and "Solomon County" (a modification of Sullivan County), by many who visited there.

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