Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
It Looks Like the Old Country: The Catskills, the Carpathians, and the Pale
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper explores long-standing links between the Catskill Mountains, an Appalachian region of New York State, and upland regions of Central and Eastern Europe, including the Carpathian Mountains. Successive waves of immigration have helped maintain this connection for more than a century. Beginning in the 1920s, the southern Catskills emerged as a resort area catering to Jewish vacationers. Jewish immigrants at that point were mostly from Russia’s “Pale of Settlement,” which had extended from today’s Lithuania through Belarus and Ukraine into Moldova, in the foothills of the eastern Carpathians. They were typically poor, rural, and marginalized, often from shtetls (small Jewish communities) located in landscapes that resembled the southern Catskills. Although most Jewish immigrants settled in cities, some preferred farming and small-town life, particularly in the Catskills where they were more-or-less welcome. These struggling Catskill farmers began to take in tourists at their houses and a communal atmosphere developed among the hosts and guests, recalling in many ways Eastern Europe’s close-knit shtetls. This then gave rise to a booming resort industry that would have a substantial impact on popular culture. Later waves of Jewish immigrants, many from the Carpathians, would vacation or settle in the Catskills. In addition, ethnic Ukrainians have established a notable presence there; some locations today have traditional churches and community buildings designed much like their counterparts in Ukraine’s Carpathians. The similar climate and terrain, combined with the Catskills’ proximity to New York City, have contributed to the sustained ties between these widely separated regions.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Timothy Di Leo Browne is a Ph.D. candidate and contract faculty member of Carleton University’s School of Canadian Studies and School of Linguistics. His work focuses on contact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of North America, and between urban and rural populations in the northern Appalachians.
It Looks Like the Old Country: The Catskills, the Carpathians, and the Pale
This paper explores long-standing links between the Catskill Mountains, an Appalachian region of New York State, and upland regions of Central and Eastern Europe, including the Carpathian Mountains. Successive waves of immigration have helped maintain this connection for more than a century. Beginning in the 1920s, the southern Catskills emerged as a resort area catering to Jewish vacationers. Jewish immigrants at that point were mostly from Russia’s “Pale of Settlement,” which had extended from today’s Lithuania through Belarus and Ukraine into Moldova, in the foothills of the eastern Carpathians. They were typically poor, rural, and marginalized, often from shtetls (small Jewish communities) located in landscapes that resembled the southern Catskills. Although most Jewish immigrants settled in cities, some preferred farming and small-town life, particularly in the Catskills where they were more-or-less welcome. These struggling Catskill farmers began to take in tourists at their houses and a communal atmosphere developed among the hosts and guests, recalling in many ways Eastern Europe’s close-knit shtetls. This then gave rise to a booming resort industry that would have a substantial impact on popular culture. Later waves of Jewish immigrants, many from the Carpathians, would vacation or settle in the Catskills. In addition, ethnic Ukrainians have established a notable presence there; some locations today have traditional churches and community buildings designed much like their counterparts in Ukraine’s Carpathians. The similar climate and terrain, combined with the Catskills’ proximity to New York City, have contributed to the sustained ties between these widely separated regions.
