The signs of neglect are everywhere, run down living quarters, broken recreational equipment and that’s what you can see. Residents in Monticello say they’ve been able to smell a problem at this summer camp for years: an overpowering stench of raw sewage.
For the last 5 years, the 141-acre facility has been run as Camp Bias Esther and accommodated 400 Hasidic boys from Brooklyn.
However, yesterday, officials in the town of Thompson shut down the camp prior to its opening for the summer.
Besides the sewage problem, inspectors found dangerous electrical work – wires designed only for indoor use were strung outside.
At one time the property was a hotel known as the Esther Manor, it’s where Neil Sedaka got his start and married the owner’s daughter. It was part of the Borscht Belt, the area in the Catskills where many Jewish families vacationed. However, in recent years it fell into disrepair like many other resorts.
Wednesday, security guards manned the entrance to the camp. Town officials say there’s an ongoing dispute between the property owners and the group that leases the site. Either way, the camp will remain closed until a long list of repairs is complete.
u guys are so intersting!!!! i dont understand……. u dont have to fight about a camp that shut down!!!!! u guys r really not bringing moshiach!!!! just let them handle it!!! they dont need other people to be fighting about it!!!!! thanx!
If you listened to the interview properly, they were forewarned a while ago, they refused to listen citing a dispute between the owners of the property and the owners of the camp. It is a terrible shame for the boys who will have no where to go!
they could just hang out in that huge walmart all summer.
Why do they wait till the last minute to shut it down? Now these poor kinderlach will be shvitzing away in the hot Brooklyn all summer. Nebach
I understood your sarcasm right away. Maybe here in England we are always sarcastic! but this is a terrible story. I am sure those boys in Bobov learn hard and donot have much leisure time and they deserve a decent holiday with proper safety and comfort.
I was just trying this new mechanism all the cool kids at school use. . . it’s called sarcasm.. You should look it up sometime.
ur saying its not a chilul hashem to have a jewish run down dangerous place for kids to play
that’s not a chillul Hashem or anything. . .