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PAGE 28 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 22, 1986 SOUTHERN FIELD REPRESENTATIVE FOR OFFICE OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS, HEBREW UNIVERSITY College degree required. Past participant in H.U. program preferred. Position entails travelling and contacts with students and academics. Send resume to: Director, Office of Academic Affairs, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 11 East 69th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021. FOR THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Ron Weintraub Hennessy Cadillac Jaguar 3040 Piedmont R<±, N.E. Atlanta, GA 30305 261-5700 Catskill hotels changing to keep in step with times by Arnold Ages JTA — KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y. It’s as though Macy’s told Gim- bels. Resort owners in the fabled Catskill Mountains of New York State have co-produced a public relations leaflet which collectively lauds their Jewish-oriented hotels. The leaflet even mentions Grossin- ger’s, the major hotel that is closed for renovations. This unprecedented cooperation reflects the desire to promote a community of hotels, not isolated units, according to Milton Kutcher, owner of Kutcher’s Hotel, and Gordon Winarick, owner of the Concord Hotel, the largest in the Catskills. Otherwise, the advertising stresses the perennial themes of the resorts, begun in the early part of this century: their informality com pared to urban hotels, food, enter tainment and camaraderie. But the “Borscht Belt” resort business is changing. Irving Cohen, the maitre d’ at the Concord, said that year-round operations have changed the nature of the dining room. Fewer college students are available to wait on and bus tables, making it necessary to engage full time help, and attracting good ser vice personnel is difficult, he added. Patronize our Advertisers they help bring you The Southern Israelite Also new is the dichotomy be tween the kosher hotel and the kosher-dining hotel. Cohen put it this way: “We have kosher dining facilities that are impeccable. We are inspected, moreover, regularly by New York State agents from the Department of Agriculture. “We are not, however, a kosher hotel in the sense that we do not control the atmosphere outside of the dining hall. The Concord and several of the other Catskill resorts employ mashgichim to supervise their dining halls and kitchens, but they do not enforce religious regula tions beyond this.” Some people here claim that Grossinger’s closed its doors prim arily because it went “further than was wise from the business point of view” to attract Jewish clients who were religiously observant. As one hotel owner put it: “There simply aren’t enough of that segment ol Jewish society to sustain a hotel of Grossinger’s size.” Another change is the guests. Twenty-five years ago, the major ity was Jewish and from New York or New Jersey. Today, as much as 30 percent are non-Jews. In addi tion, they come from all over North America and Europe. Winarick of the Concord said this is an impor tant development. The presence of non-Jewish guests at the Concord and other Catskill resorts is due to attempts in recent years to attract convention business. At the Con cord, for example, an international chess convention recently was sharing space with the Pennsyl vania-based Brit Shalom fraternal order. Winarick developed a new fam ily encounter and reunion program at his hotel called “L’Chaim,” He brew for “to life.” He indicated that one reunion would soon gather more than 40 people from all over the United States. Whether they come for family reunions, conventions or personal respites, the Catskill hotels still offer an array of entertainment. It’s passe by now to list the promi nent Hollywood personalities who began their careers as stand-up comics in the “Borscht Belt.” The fledgling would-be comedians are still making the rounds, but they are being eclipsed, especially on weekends, by mega-stars such as Paul Anka, Harry Belafonte, Joan Rivers, Tom Jones and Julio Igle- sias, all of whom were scheduled to perform at the Concord this sum mer. Intellectual entertainment also attracts respectable audiences. Kutcher’s has a resident expert on the Middle East who discourses regularly about Israeli and Arab politics. The Concord invites highly qualified experts on taxes and in vestment strategy to lecture on a regular basis. v STC iL_ / vT V 4 \% More and more, people ore turning to The Southern Israelite for... n j Community, Notional and World news and events... Subscribe and keep in touch *"""ubscnbe ‘^ V ^ x n ? 7 S, C AtC! Georgia 30357 The Southern Israelite, W ulclress- r Name. City- itate. / A nlease fill in your personal address bdow y If this is a gilt subscription, address. Name ~ JState This is . , .subscriptionformVseM-->oth_ a gift (indicate occas.on) $ J3 00 2 years, 1 have enclosed my check for — »