The last real shabbos nachamu I spent roaming between Woodbourne and Kiamesha Lanes was years ago, I must have been about 22 or 23, and the kids at risk yeshiva rebel revolution was at its tail end. Not that there aren’t yeshiva rebels anymore, but nowadays yeshiva rebels are way younger and more advanced in their rebellious ways, the Rabbis thinking they were brilliant banned different “dangerous” spots for young yeshiva guys and girls because they didn’t want them to hang out and the response was private parties with drugs and sex are way better than trying to get Rifky’s eye at Woodbourne Pizza.
I remember the days when kids would literally drive up to Woodbourne just to hang out on Saturday night, these were the days before I was a writer, and before I took a keen interest in the ridiculous scene that happened in Woodbourne, but still as a modern orthodox kid it seemed completely insane and growing up on the upper west side I never got to see girls in skirts talking about the spies from their school catching them “hanging out”.
For those of you who don’t know, Woodbourne is a small town in upstate NY, it is near Catskill park and the Jews call this the country, the Catskills, or the mountains – some people say that the more modern you are the more likely you are to call this “upstate” either way this area swells in the summer with ultra orthodox vacationers from the NY metro area. In recent years it has gone mostly Charedi, but when I was a kid you could still find a bungalow without a large wall blocking the view of the pool that had mixed swimming, I hear that even Vacation Village which prided themselves on not having separate swimming has in recent years placed certain times for separate swimming.
Woodbourne is one street of restaurants, if you want to call greasy fast food joints that. There is a bakery, two kosher pizza stores, an arcade, a store selling stockings, a fruit store and some other ramshackle summer places which all look like they survived Hurricane Katrina.
Frummies love Woodbourne and for some reason they flock there, visiting day is a zoo, but nothing compares to what went on during the mid 90s on Saturday night of shabbos nachamu. It’s not even such a big deal, but for me at the time it was a big deal. For most it was a big deal because they were sneaking away from their frum homes to do things like talk to girls, listen to metallica and smoke underneath the bridge over the neversink. It was also a time to be away from parents and Rabbis and all the other things that yeshivish families don’t allow you to do, like wear jeans.
The first time I ever saw Woodbourne in all of its glory was when I was 16, it was 1998 and the orthodox rabbinate had just figured out that yeshiva kids also liked sex and drugs, and they were scurrying like mad to figure out what to do – they still haven’t figured it out, but those kids at risk programs sure made a killing and Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz has a job because of it. My father drove my friend Jerry and I to Woodbourne while he paroused the seforim store, I think we were the only kids there with a parent who thought it was a good thing.
It was mobbed, these were the days of JNCO jeans, airwalks and girls with those tight black slinky skirts that you could see their underwear lines through. The first thing I distinctly remember was that my friend and I were the only ones not wearing velvet yarmulkes, and the only ones wearing shorts, we were also not smoking and we didn’t have long bangs tucked underneath our flat black yarmulkes that were pinned down with two bobby pins, we were completely out of place.
Clusters of yeshiva rebels stood around, everyone smoked and for every girl there was at least 5 guys, this was in the days before the shidduch crisis. This was in the days when wide legs and chain wallets were cool and girls would wear short sleeves and then change before they got home – it was pretty insane.
The Woodbourne scene suffered a slow death, as stated before it was mostly as a result of awareness pushed forth by the Rabbis and concerned parents that voiced their concerns over the dangers their children were coming in contact with – it was really a stupid thing to do because instead of hanging out in Jewish pizza stores they now just made parties and went to bars – but you know how stupid frummies can be when they set their mind to something.
When I was 23 I was hanging out in Woodbourne and met some friends, we then did the traditional back and forth between Woodbourne and Kiamesha Lanes trying to see if we could pick up chicks even though the types of people that hang out in these places usually have nothing to say unless you want to play Jewish Geography or smoke and talk about metallica. How the hell did Metallica become that yeshiva rebel band anyway?
Someone emailed me and asked me to talk about the concerts at Monticello Raceway. Unless you paid me to go to some yeshivish concert with prepubescent alter boy types singing tehillim there is no way I would know what went on there. The only concert I ever attended in the Catskills was Phil Lesh and Trey.
Like Ave J, Playboy Billiards and Café Wah – Woodbourne is dead and completely uninteresting to me nowadays, unless if involves weeknight free food at Dougies.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Yup, another one of those dead cultures as kids evolved and got smart.
Metallica wasn’t very popular in my days, that was back before they were mainstream. I was one of the few metalheads in my Yeshiva, despite being in Los Angeles, home of the frum headbangers. Most others were into dance/hip hop/rap Michael Jackson/BeastyBoys thing.
Smoking was just one of those things that went along with the “bummmy” things such as music, movies and girls, it came with the territory.
The best part of Woodbourne nowadays is watching the 30something guys with a wife and kids going back to see if the glory still exists.
They walk back and forth on the sidewalk, trying to find a remnant of their rebellious rock and roll youth, but as you correctly put it in your piece, there’s nothing there for anyone to see anymore.
I love the former yeshiva rebels wandering around, but as Istated the rabbis shot themselves and now its just a bunch of sternberg councilors and romimu guys eating fire poppers
hahahah, I was TOTALLY into this scene. I was super lucky back in the day because my father worked upstate during the summer and I had a free hotel room AND my grandmother had a nice place by Woodlake Estates. My summers were hopping!
I remember when I was 16 or 17 I BEGGED for a ride to Woodbourne on Shabbas Nachamu. How exciting! Two pizza store and lots of cool 17 year old douchebags!
I also remember that the Hasc counselors spent their nights out bowling @ Kiamesha lanes. I always thought the guys were adorable.
Gosh, I probably will never step foot upstate again
I just went to Woodbourne 2 weeks ago with my wife and son, and other than a group of hippy/ na nach boys and girls with the munchies in front of Dougies the place was completely dead. My wife, an out of towner good girl, absolutely did not get it. I hummed some Mettallica but it wasn’t the same. I don’t even smoke cigarettes anymore.
My son enjoyed the duckies immensely, so the day wasn’t a total loss.
As a former “at-risk” B.Y. girl this post brings back lots of memories. I always wondered what happened to the woodburne of old, having not stepped foot in the place in over 10 years… I would have loved to have gone back with my husband – a former “at risker” as well- and relived the glory days… glad to know it’s not worth the trip.
@Frum Satire – This is a phenomenon that tends to repeat itself every generation. My dad used to go to Camp Masad during the summer (it was a left wing none shomer shabbos zionist camp). Now my father is a charedi Dr. in Israel and he still misses that camp. He was recently in the US and he went to see if it was still there(It is now a Chasideshe Girls summer camp) With me I used to live in Brooklyn and I remember the hotspots on Ave J outside of the pizza places. All of those are gone along with the higher quality of the pizza back then. I used to listen to Hammerfall, I didnt like metallica
Heshy: Romimu guys eating fire poppers – priceless! But you left out the descriptives; they must be wearing pressed and starched Hilfiger polo shirts .
Hey my brother went to camp masad and it was shomer shabbos and kosher – just not too religious.
I too, was shocked at how different Woodbourne is from when I was a teen in the mountains in the late 90′s.
You forgot to mention that ridiculous store that made personalized hats and whatnot. It was like a badge of courage that you were cool enough to go to woodbourne. right?
The Woodbourne that was so terrible back in the day never actually led to anything. The girls and guys would “accidentally” brush hands, and that was it. They then told their friends how they held hands. That was as far as things went.
i’ve got a friend near there. I wonder if i’d get stoned for wearing long (but still above the knee) shorts there.
Heshy-GREAT post-I was in Woodbourne in the summer of 95-Sat night Nachamu-must have been the apex of Woodbourne -I was Head counselor at Woodlake-that was actually shabbas nachamu-like even during Tisha B’Av. Chaya (post above) might have been one of my counselors
The scene was absolutely nuts-the emergence of Kids at Risk unfolding like a runaway train-
this will show my age ….. the store was called “you name it” . classic great memories of woodbourne
To the MO outsider visiting Woodburn, it was fun to go to there on stopovers with our MO camps and stare at the Yeshivish at risk kids hanging out.
Hey chaya you rock-hit me up!
Disturbed took over Metallica for today’s at risk kids, mostly because there is some “heter” being that David Draiman is Jewish.