The Borscht Belt: An Illustrated Talk by Marisa Scheinfeld

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Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale will host an illustrated talk by photographer Marisa Scheinfeld on Thursday, November 30, at 2:30 p.m., in the Biederman Library at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, 5901 Palisade Avenue, in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. This event is free and open to the public. Please R.S.V.P. to 718.581.1596 or art@hebrewhome.org. Photo I.D. required for entrance.

The talk is related to her book, The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America's Jewish Vacationland (Cornell University Press, 2016), featuring images of abandoned sites in the once booming Catskill region of upstate New York. These images include both interior and exterior views of the formerly bustling summer resorts, hotels and bungalow colonies that now lie forgotten, overgrown and vacant. Poignant in the traces of human activity that remain, nature encroaches upon or completely overtakes the architectural remains.

About Marisa Scheinfeld

Marisa Scheinfeld was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Catskills. She graduated from The State University of New York at Albany, studied at The School of Visual Arts, and received her MFA from The School of Art, Art History and Design at San Diego State University. She currently lives in New York. Scheinfeld is highly motivated by her interest in ruins, or other sites, and the histories embedded in them. Her projects have taken her from the US to Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, India, and, most recently, her own backyard. Her photographic projects and books are in the collections of Yeshiva University Museum, The National Yiddish Book Center, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art & Life, The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, The La Jolla Athenaeum in La Jolla, CA, The Edmund and Nancy K. Dubois Library at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Lynn Kroll, and The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in New York. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Slate Magazine, The Jerusalem Post, Popular Photography, American Photography, Tablet Magazine, The Jewish Daily Forward, Heeb, Feature Shoot, Fine Line Magazine, The Jewish Week, Hadassah Magazine, The Jewish Algemeiner (Berlin), and Goldberg Magazine (Denmark), and many others. MarisaScheinfeld.com

About Hebrew Home

As a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale by RiverSpring Health is committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 32-acre campus, including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provides educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. RiverSpring Health is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric organization serving more than 12,000 older adults in greater New York through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Art Collection and grounds open daily, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Call 718.581.1596 for holiday hours and to schedule group tours, or for further information, visit our website at http://www.riverspringhealth.org/art

Image: Marisa Scheinfeld, Guest Room, Tamarack Lodge, Greenfield Park, New York. Courtesy of the artist.

Jewish, photography, lecture, free, Jewish art

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