The Nevele was one of the great resorts of the Catskills’ Borscht Belt. Resorts like it flourished partly because Jewish vacationers were excluded from many other American hotels and clubs. They created their own elaborate vacation culture, with entertainment, sports, dining and social life. The Nevele closed in 2009 and much of the resort was left abandoned.

I grew up in New Milford, New Jersey, in a community with a large Jewish population, so the Borscht Belt never seemed particularly exotic to me. Only later did I understand that this resort culture had developed partly as a response to exclusion elsewhere. That changed what I saw when I photographed the abandoned Nevele.