Join us for a summer evening screening of We Met at Grossinger’s — a transporting new documentary about the legendary Catskills resort — followed by a conversation with director Paula Eiselt, producer Robert Friedman, and Susan Etess, granddaughter of the founders of Grossinger’s. It’s a chance to go behind the scenes of the film and back inside one of the most storied places in Jewish American life.
Grossinger’s was the glamorous heart of the Catskills: a world of tummlers and tennis courts, comedians and cabanas, romance, rivalry, and enough buffet to sustain a small republic. The resort that helped inspire Dirty Dancing became a defining stage for Jewish American culture and comedy — the place where families returned summer after summer, stars came to play, and a generation learned that leisure could be loud, lavish, and very well catered.
But the Borscht Belt was never just a vacation. Built in response to a country that too often shut Jewish families out of its hotels, clubs, and beaches, Grossinger’s became something bigger: a sanctuary of belonging, joy, ambition, and reinvention. Led by the formidable Jennie Grossinger (the “Queen of Hospitality”), it helped transform exclusion into a culture of wit, style, community, and resilience.
With extraordinary footage and first-hand stories, We Met at Grossinger’s brings that lost world vividly back to life — funny, bittersweet, and deeply American.