Best Bet for Retaining Value: Local History

A new resident of the Catskills, I have been learning about the area. There have been lots of trips, explorations and conversations. But a local history done by scholars? Is there a better way to get the bigger picture? Possibly – but for this book nerd, please give me the scholarly history!

In 1995, Abraham D. Lavender and Clarence B. Steinberg wrote Jewish Farmers of the Catskills: A Century of Survival. At the time Lavender was a professor at Florida International University and Steinberg was a public affairs specials in the Department of Agriculture. Both have since passed way, yet their work remains relevant, all these years later. This book is the kind of resource that helps pull pieces together, that gives a context and shape to a region. The Catskills may be famous for its Jewish resorts, but there is rich tradition of farming that played a critical role in the area’s development.

Jewish Farmers is carefully researched, drawing upon primary sources and first-person accounts of the Catskills. The approach is chronological, beginning with a reminder that for centuries many Jews have held farming dear. The tradition was not accidental. Leaders made conscious efforts, especially in the decades of mass migration to the US, to encourage Jewish farmers. Around 1880 the first Jews arrived in the Catskills. While initials numbers were not great, the population increased steadily as Jewish communities grew and farmers opened small bungalows on their farmland. These brought more people to the area as a boardinghouse became a regular fixture of the family’s acres.

The Great Depression hit the community hard. However, thanks to cooperative arrangements and diversification of income (farming and resorts/hospitality), many in the Jewish community managed to get by relatively well compared to others. By the 1940s Jewish farmers were active contributors to the war effort, and in the years after WWII, greater wealth and the consolidation of farms led to more changes. The farms became larger, with specializations in dairy and chicken. Some made the switch to full-time resorts as changing economics dictated new ways of finding profit. The book is very strong on matching trends with individual accounts. The authors did a great deal of on the ground research. They explain, too, how other changes reshaped the county. Perhaps more than their gentile counterparts, Jewish farmers tended to embrace the innovations promoted by Cornell University Extension. In a word, Jewish farmers were quicker to innovate and tap new technologies.

That commitment to educational opportunity also meant that Jewish children were more likely to attend college. Ironically, that meant that many did not want to maintain the family farm or even remain in the area. By tracking the stories of individual families, Lavender and Steinberg explain the difficulties of day-to-day agricultural life. They also note the deep patriotism and the many efforts in the county to create a more tolerant atmosphere. The book concludes in the 1960s, with some references to changes after the resorts began to close.

The legacy of Jewish farming extends well beyond names and resorts. The Jewish community’s roots in the Catskills still has an impact on economics (Sullivan County, NY, is one of New York State’s leaders in dairy and egg production) and culture. We owe Lavender and Steinberg thanks for getting this vibrant history recorded and published.

David Potash

The Dean of New Things Embraced Change

In the past half-century public higher education, like so much of America, has changed dramatically. It’s a vastly different landscape, with millions more attending college as the economy – the world – demands new skills, new knowledge, and new ways of doing business. The City University of New York, one of the largest systems in…

Strong Towns For All

Charles Marohn’s Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is a most provocative book. Since reading it I haven’t been able to look at the built environment around me in quite the same manner. The outgrowth of popular blog, Strong Towns describes a movement in urban planning and the journey to its creation.…

Armed American Public Health

What are the reasons, consequences and outcomes for a more heavily armed America? It is a question increasingly looked at by politicians, policy makers, businesses, and more than a few scholars. One of the country’s foremost experts is Jonathan M. Metzl, a professor at Vanderbilt University. He directs the university’s Department of Medicine, Health and…

Reasons Has Its Reason

How does one plump a 37-year-old philosophy book? How can one best recommend a scholarly study that demands close reading and is challenging for those without a solid understanding and appreciation of continental philosophy? It is no easy task, even though in so many ways, Frederick C. Beiser’s The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from…

Public Health Reconsidered From A Different Perspective

Jonathan Metzl is a doctor, psychiatrist, professor and author of several well-received books. Right before the pandemic he wrote Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland. The work garnered a great deal of attention and significant praise. It is a powerful study, drawing from several disciplines, and made all…

Aging And Options

Elizabeth White has a stellar resume, tremendous writing skills, and an important story to tell. A well-traveled army child attuned to the importance of education, White attended Oberlin as an undergraduate, majoring in political science. She went on to earn an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Early…