Sullivan County: Solomon County (nickname)
Sullivan County, New York, was part of the Jewish “Borscht Belt” from the 1910s to the 1970s. It was sometimes given a Jewish name—“Solomon County.”
“Of late Sullivan county has been called Solomon county. This is because so many East Side families from the city have been summering in the hills” was printed in the Atchison (KS) Daily Globe on July 25, 1911.
Wikipedia: Sullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The county’s name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War.
The county was the site of hundreds of Borscht Belt hotels and resorts, which had their heyday from the 1920s through the 1970s.
Wikipedia: Borscht Belt
Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a nickname for the (now mostly defunct) summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York. Borscht, a soup associated with immigrants from eastern Europe, was a metonym for “Jewish”. These resorts were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews between the 1920s and the 1970s. Most Borscht Belt resorts hosted traveling Jewish comedians and musicians, and many who later became prominent began their careers there.
The tradition of Borscht Belt entertainment began in the early twentieth century with the indoor and outdoor theaters constructed on a 40-acre (16-hectare) tract in Hunter, New York, by Yiddish theater star Boris Thomashefsky.
Beginning in the 1980s, the growth of air travel made the Catskills less attractive, so many of the resorts eventually closed, although Jewish culture has remained present.
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Some of the Catskill hotels were converted from farms that immigrant Jews had started in the early 1900s. As the area grew, it began to cater specifically to Jews, providing kosher food, synagogues, and other features of Jewish communities, including entertainment. The area became known as “The Jewish Alps”, and the Sullivan County portion as “Solomon County”.
Newspapers.com
25 July 1911, Atchison (KS) Daily Globe, “New York Farm Notes” by “Jim” Howe, pg. 4, col. 5:
Of late Sullivan county has been called Solomon county. This is because so many East Side families from the city have been summering in the hills. Every train leaving New York for this part of the country is filled with Jewish women and their children. There are many Hebrew boarding houses. Farms, or parts of farms, have been bought by the Jews.
Newspapers.com
15 August 1912, Buffalo (NY) Evening Times, “The Jarr Family” by Roy L. McCardell, pg. 12, col. 5:
“BY gollies! I ain’t going to have no company any more at my home when my wife is away up in Solomon County in the Killskats mountains,” said Mr. Slavinsky, the neighborhood glazier.
“Catskill, Catskill!” correct Mr. Jarr. “And you mean Sullivan County, too.”
Newspapers.com
22 June 1917, Pittsburgh (PA) Press, “The Jarr Family” by Roy L. McCardell, pg. 18, col. 7:
“Yoi, I visht right now she was up for two weeks or a month in Solomon county in the Kittskills.”
“Sullivan county in the Catskills, you mean,” said Mr. Jarr.
Google Books
Traveling Around the World with Mike and Barbara Bivona:
Part One
By Mike Bivona
Lincoln, NE: iUniverse
2013
Pg. 174:
Due to the predominately Jewish population in the summer months, the area was referred to as the Jewish Alps, and Sullivan County was referred to as Solomon County.
Twitter
Sasa Christo
@SasaChristo
‘The area became known as “The Jewish Alps”,
and the Sullivan County portion as “Solomon County”’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht_Belt
JewishAlpsJaJaJa
3:56 AM · Jun 12, 2018·Twitter Web Client
Twitter
Kaplowitz Media
@KaplowitzMedia
The area became known as “The Jewish Alps”, and the Sullivan County portion as “Solomon County”.
5:58 PM · Feb 17, 2019·Twitter Web Client