By Larry Gordon
Those of you who are drawn to spend part of your year in the Catskills are probably aware that these little towns we have grown up with, many of which one can drive through in less than thirty seconds, have at least one thing in common. And that is their shuls, whether in Ellenville, Wurtsboro, Spring Glen, Woodbourne, Woodridge, Liberty, Loch Sheldrake, Monticello, or any of the others that dot the so-called “country” map.
Each one of these towns and their shuls has a unique Jewish history and a relationship with the now-dwindling fulltime Jewish residents.
This summer, the shul in Loch Sheldrake that you drive by quickly when passing through town on your way to Woodbourne is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is a momentous and historic occasion that will be celebrated with a grand melaveh malkah/dinner on July 9 in South Fallsburg.
Of course, there are dedicated people and personalities who kept these shuls alive and functioning at least intermittently over the decades. While some of the shuls are quiet and locked up, others are booming and a hub of activity.
Case in point, of course, is Woodbourne, where Rabbi Mordechai Jungreis has breathed life into a shul that is now a veritable Catskills minyan factory.
Aside from Woodbourne, there are really no other Catskills shuls that feature a fulltime rabbi or even a rabbi emeritus that are not in what used to be commonly referred to as bungalow colonies.
Loch Sheldrake is an interesting place. In the old heyday of the Catskills, there was very little there to begin with. There was the shul, a movie theater, a laundromat, and a bar. And there was the magnificent lake with homes that dotted its circumference. Loch Sheldrake is probably one of the lesser known of this string of interconnected hamlets and the one that, at an average speed, you can drive through the quickest.
But hidden off the main road are two of the Catskills’ most upscale homesteads, including Vacation Village and Luxor Estates. Both expansive as well as expensive communities feature their own minyanim and shuls, and that is particularly true in these post-pandemic times when a plethora of outdoor and in-home minyanim are enduring.
Rabbi Dr. Rashi Shapiro, who today spends most of the year divided between Jerusalem, Loch Sheldrake, and Far Rockaway, where some of his children reside, was the rabbi in the Loch Sheldrake shul for more than three decades. He says that through a combination of circumstances that involved his brother, he ended up buying a foreclosed home back in 1990. Since he was not part of an organized community like Vacation Village, he began attending, or rather organizing, services on Shabbos at the shul. His rabbinic duties are voluntary, as over many years Dr. Shapiro ran a thriving psychology practice both here and in Israel.
It is important to note that these are not just shuls in these towns that happened to exist for 75 or 100 years or more. These shuls were focal points of these Jewish communities, even though, Rashi says (I had to go there sooner or later), most if not all of these year-round community members were not shomer Shabbos or even kashrus-observant.
The odd thing, he says, though, is that shul and minyan were always important to them. Take Herby Schechter, for example. He and his wife and children lived in Loch Sheldrake since the 1940s. He sold his home in Loch Sheldrake last year and settled in Florida. Herby is an honoree at the July 9 event, and he will be there for Shabbos. He’s almost 90 years old now. For the last many years, it was difficult for him to walk to shul on Shabbos, so he took it upon himself to drive.
Of course, that sounds strange and definitely not halachically permissible for just about all of us. The point is not to glorify or endorse that kind of thing, but it is important to be able to appreciate how vital shul and minyan is to a man like Herby.
Rabbi Shapiro says that years ago, when Shechter found out that the shul in Hurleyville was having difficulty putting together a minyan on Shabbos, after he ascertained that there were enough people for a minyan in Loch Sheldrake, he would drive to Hurleyville to be part of the minyan.
An anecdote like this has to be viewed in its proper context. The sad reality is that the overwhelming majority of Jews in the U.S. does not observe Shabbos, or at least not properly. That means there is a huge kiruv opportunity out there, and we have a lot of work to do.
Men like Herby and others who lived around that majestic lake had an unusual order of priorities when it came to how they observed. But that was the nature of their early American upbringing. We can analyze that from cultural, psychological, and sociological perspectives, but that is not for here or now. The point is that these men and women and their families had minimal Jewish education, so let’s just say that they did the best they could according to the way they understood what had to be done.
About 15 years ago, the shul needed a ba’al korei, and Rabbi Aaron Mandel of Flatbush who spends his summers with his family at a bungalow colony known as Sheldrake Dorms applied and was selected for the job. Rabbi Mandel took his involvement in the shul to heart, with the goal of building it up and restoring it both materially and spiritually over the years.
Now Rabbi Mandel is present every Shabbos from after Memorial Day until Labor Day. Rabbi Shapiro who, in his younger years, was the lead singer in an obscure group known by the cute moniker “Rashi and the Rishonim” says that after almost three decades he needed a replacement so that he could spend more time at his home in Jerusalem and with family.
As it turns out, in the pandemic summer of 2020, when we rented a home in Ellenville where there was really no daily minyan, we would usually make the 10-mile drive to Woodbourne for Shacharis.
One Sunday morning, after being contacted by my former neighbor, Jack Ehrenhaus, a mainstay in the Loch Sheldrake Shul, I traveled an extra two miles from Woodbourne for the 8 a.m. Sunday-morning minyan in Loch Sheldrake.
When you step into any of these Catskills shuls, you are entering the hallowed history of the fashion in which Jewry survived in America. It is a quaint shul of total wooden construction with solid pews and a traditionally designed aron kodesh. Rabbi Mandel oversaw the reconstruction of the shul kitchen and provides supervision for its kashrus. That fact allows a cross-section of folks to utilize the shul seven days a week.
Learning about the past, you get the sense that without the deep-seated attachment to supporting a shul and attending a minyan, the ravages of assimilation in America could have been much worse than it currently is. And that is a truth that mostly prevailed through the transitional years, primarily of the 1950s and 60s, when our future was rather tenuous, and we were not sure what course Jewish life would take in this country.
One of the unusual things about these Catskills shuls, including this one in Loch Sheldrake—and I asked both rabbis about this—is that all these shuls have always been and still consider themselves to be Orthodox shuls. Even a half-century ago, the shuls may not have had a minyan on Shabbos without some people driving there, but still they considered themselves Orthodox.
Interestingly, Rashi says (there it is again) that the founders of the shul in Loch Sheldrake saw to it that there is an endowment fund overseen by the board that covers the shul’s annual budget, which is only about $30,000 annually.
So the 100-year celebration on Saturday night, July 9, is not about raising money. It is about celebrating an important and meaningful centennial. It is about how a small shul that shared a street with a movie theater and a bar has endured, while the theater and the bar are long gone (the laundromat is still there).
Today, all those small towns are still dotted with landmark shuls. Many have not had a daily minyan in decades. But in Loch Sheldrake, the flame of Torah and tefillah is alive—and thriving.
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
