April 20, 2017 Orthodox Jews and summer vacation
A reader asked: Do Orthodox Jews still spend their summers in the Catskill mountains?
Answer:
I think these music videos (male-centric, of course) will give you more of a sense of Catskills for Hasidim (a form of Orthodox Jewry) than any written description.
PS: I heard that some kids featured in these videos were penalized by their schools for featuring in something as “modern” as a music video. I don’t know all the details, but this kind of pushback against modern mediums is run of the mill.
And a less staged video, produced, I believed, for within the community. One of those internal montages.
Source: Went to summer camp in the Catskills for many years. As a tour guide in Williamsburg, the two months of summer touring in Brooklyn are mostly dead. The bakeries we tour aren’t even open. Nearly everyone leaves town; it’s incredible.