Interview with Rebecca Patner

Interview with Rebecca Patner

Rebecca Patner

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Interviewers

Alan Hoff

Description

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.

Date of Interview

8-10-1995

Location of Interview

South Haven, MI

Series

The South Haven Jewish Resort Oral History Project

Keywords

Resorts, Hotels, South Haven (Mich.)

Disciplines

Jewish Studies | Oral History | Public History

Notes

Digitized from videocassette.

Language

ENG

Document Type

Interview

Length of video

0:53:33

Length of video log

-

Interview with Rebecca Patner

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.