Kalamazoo Valley Museum - The South Haven Jewish Resort Oral History Project

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  Interview with Anne Fidelman

  Anne Fidelman

  Interview with Anne Fidelman, née Shapiro (1911-2000) recorded on August 10, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Anne first visited Fidelman's Resort 1936 as a guest, later marrying Hyman Fidelman and returning as part of the Fidelman family, and working at the resort. She recounts her memories of the resort, including:

  • history of Fidelman's Resort as first a farm, then farm resort;
  • visiting the resort as a guest in 1936;
  • meeting Hyman Fidelman again in Chicago at a gathering of the Itsy Bitsy Club, a group of singles who met at the resort;
  • marrying Hyman and returning after their honeymoon to work at the resort;
  • joining her mother-in-law in the kitchen;
  • hostessing, creating the seating arrangement for the dining room;
  • Friday night service, like is offered in Jewish homes;
  • heydays of the 50s and 60s with guests coming from Ohio, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit;
  • typical guest arrival by car;
  • entertainment for guests including hayrides, storytelling, mock weddings, bonfires and roasted corn; and
  • selling her share in the resort, stepping away, and watching the decline in the final years.

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  Interview with Sheila Fidelman, Part 1 of 3

  Sheila Fidelman

  Part 1 of a 3 part interview with Sheila Fidelman (1924-2008) recorded on August 10, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Sheila Fidelman, last owner of Fidelman's Resort, established in 1911, recounts her memories of the resort, including:

  • after graduating high school, working for her father's restaurant;
  • vacationing in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she met her husband, Irving Fidelman;
  • returning with Irving to South Haven, Michigan;
  • her first impressions of seeing the Fidelman's Resort;
  • adjusting to a rural environment as a city girl;
  • initiation to resort life and work;
  • Saturday nights out at South Haven's City Grocery; and
  • finding her footing at the resort through her love of people and her love of entertaining, which she shared with Irving, who was also a singer and entertainer.

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  Interview with Sheila Fidelman, Part 2 of 3

  Sheila Fidelman

  Part 2 of a 3 part interview with Sheila Fidelman (1924-2008) recorded on August 10, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Sheila Fidelman, last owner of Fidelman's Resort, established in 1911, recounts her memories of the resort, including:

  • young wife living with her in-laws;
  • working as a secretary, desk clerk, and handling reservation correspondence;
  • performing with her husband Irving for guests and for charity events;
  • singing Mr. Wonderful as a duet with Irving;
  • the resort's high time in the 60s and 70s, with expansion, new buildings;
  • the Mai Kai Lounge, built in 1961, a supper club with liqueur by the glass;
  • evolution of financial structure, due to things like minimum wage requirements;
  • extending beyond the summer season, focusing completely on Fidelman's Resort.

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  Interview with Sheila Fidelman, Part 3 of 3

  Sheila Fidelman

  Part 3 of a 3 part interview with Sheila Fidelman (1924-2008) recorded on August 10, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Sheila Fidelman, last owner of Fidelman's Resort, established in 1911, recounts her memories of the resort, including:

  • resort guests, who were like family;
  • entertainment and activities for guests;
  • evening dances, floor shows, storytelling, and midnight snacks;
  • dress dinners with quality musicians;
  • the extensive buffets, salad bars, and pastries;
  • interior design of the guest rooms and Mai Kai Lounge;
  • financial strains on an independent resort;
  • loss of a building to a devastating fire on Christmas Day, 1981;
  • selling the resort.

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  Memories from South Haven Michigan's Jewish Resorts

  Sheila Fidelman, Anne Fidelman, Simon Reznik, Roselyn Schwartz, Art Samson, Rebecca Patner, and Henry Greene

  Documentary film produced by Monadnock Media for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum featuring interviews with people about the history of Jewish resorts in South Haven, Michigan.

  In August of 1995, a video production crew interviewed Anne and Sheila Fidelman, Rebecca Patner, Si Reznik, Roselyn Schwartz, Art Samson, and Henry Greene in South Haven, Michigan. The footage was combined with historical images and new footage to create a short documentary.

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  Interview with Henry Green

  Henry Green

  Interview with Henry M. Green (1919-2003) recorded on August 9, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Henry came to South Haven from Chicago as a child with his parents. He recounts his memories of South Haven and the resorts, including:

  • his mother opening a small resort with her friend, Lorraine's;
  • poaching guests at the docks as they came off the steamers;
  • working at Samson's Resort, and as a butcher's boy for Reznik's;
  • evening entertainment, dances and shows, the North Shore Pavilion;
  • daytime entertainment, beauty contests, the beaches and movie theaters; and
  • many resorts fading away after WWII.

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  Interview with Rebecca Patner

  Rebecca Patner

  Interview with Rebecca "Becky" Patner, née Mendelson (1909-2001) recorded on August 10, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Becky's father, David Mendelson, started Mendelson's Atlantic Hotel and Resort, an all kosher resort in South Haven, Michigan. Becky recounts her memories of the resort, including:

  • coming to South Haven in 1920 from Chicago by train, where they met a woman wanting to sell a house;
  • buying the first small house with the intention of running a summer resort;
  • people coming to resort for the strictly kosher cooking;
  • her mother running the house, her father being an impeccably dressed promoter;
  • going away in winters, and returning in spring to build another building and expand;
  • at its height, Mendelson's was the premier Jewish resort, catering to guests from all over the Midwest;
  • the typical day for guests described, including children's games, hayrides, cocktail parties, music in the gazebo, swimming in Lake Michigan, and baseball games against other resorts;
  • the typical day for staff described, including early starts, cooking kosher;
  • facing antisemitism in town and at school;
  • the decline of the resorts after WWII, as people traveled for vacation, and the children of the resort owners moved away; and
  • selling the resort in 1977, seeing it torn down for condominiums.

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  Interview with Si Reznik

  Simon Reznik

  Interview with Simon "Si" Reznik (1911-2001) recorded on August 9, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Si Reznik came to South Haven as a baby when his family purchased land to start a farm, which expanded into a farm resort. He recounts his memories of the farm resort, including

  • born in Sandwich, IL, his family rents a box car to travel to South Haven with their livestock in 1912;
  • early benefactors in the Jewish Agricultural Society help them expand;
  • early farm life and hardships, though never a lack of food;
  • keeping a kosher home, and using their dining room for worship, holidays;
  • his father, Abraham, helping to gather funds to build the first synagogue for Jewish farmers;
  • the farm developing into a resort destination for city folk to escape the summer heat;
  • remodeling an old horse barn into a dining hall to seat around 100;
  • mother and sisters doing the cooking, serving;
  • as a little boy, showing off the farm animals and the route to the Black River swimming hole;
  • arriving at the docks with a horse-drawn 'bus' to pick up guests arriving on steamers from Chicago;
  • guests wanting to watch the hens laying eggs and milking the cows, the harvesting, and having bonfires at night in the orchards;
  • the establishment of resorts in the city, with more amenities, leading to the decline of the more rustic farm resort;
  • building the new synagogue in the city of South Haven (First Hebrew Congregation);
  • losing his father Abraham in 1926;
  • his brothers and sisters leaving for city jobs while he stayed with his mother Hinda until he graduated high school; and
  • unable to maintain the farm, losing it.

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  Interview with Art Samson

  Art Samson

  Interview with Arthur Aaron “Art” Samson (1921-2006) recorded on August 9, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. As a child, the youngest of 5 kids, Art came with his family from Chicago in 1928 when his father, Fishl Samson, bought a building, which later developed into Samson's Resort. He recounts his memories of the resort, including:

  • his father calling in family to help build new additions, like a dining hall, and "paying" them only with whisky, herring, and rye bread;
  • working summers at the resort along with his siblings;
  • resort entertainment, open-air dance floors with color lights;
  • how their resort attracted clientele and poached guests at the docks;
  • washing dishes, checking the lights, cleaning the bathrooms, driving the bus, and other jobs on a typical day at the resort;
  • working hard all summer with little downtime, as usual for the resort workers in-season;
  • facing antisemitism;
  • leaving for the Army and WWII in 1942, then returning to South Haven to run a gas station;
  • Samson's Resort closing soon after the death of his father in 1949.

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  Interview with Roselyn Schwartz

  Roselyn Schwartz

  Interview with Roselyn Schwartz, née Davidson (1916-2007) recorded on August 9, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. Roselyn came to South Haven in 1921 at around five years of age. Her father soon bought property and built the cottages for his wife, Anna Davidson, to run, which she did until her death in 1963. She recounts her memories of growing up in South Haven, and the summers at her mother's Roseline Cottages, including:

  • her father building the cottages to provide a vacation rental that was not restricted to gentiles like some in the area;
  • the 13 self-contained cottages;
  • families arriving in their cars, unpacking, settling in;
  • private beachfront on Lake Michigan, with swimming and beach bonfires;
  • walking down the beach to fish at the pier by the Black River;
  • her mother running the cottages alone, beginning to relying on Roselyn;
  • her chores, like making beds, pressing the curtains;
  • meeting and marrying Arthur Schwartz in 1933, leaving with him for Chicago;
  • the cottages, their amenities, and guests changing over time;
  • loss of her mother Anne in 1963, and closing the cottage business, and
  • her mother's story, an immigrant arriving in the U.S. the day WWI broke out.