Mountain Jews

Photos Jeff Zorabedian, Family archives

Nestled in the picturesque Catskill region of New York State is Hunter, New York, an idyllic village which takes its name from the town’s main attraction, the towering Hunter Mountain. At 4,040 feet, the mountain is the tallest in Greene County and the second tallest in all of the Catskills. Its lush and verdant forests dominate the area’s skyline, affording those in the vicinity breathtaking scenery, the mountain’s fertile expanse pausing only to allow the meticulously designed ski slopes to gracefully cut through.

Main Street of this peaceful village lies at the mountain’s foot. The town is divided by a babbling brook that provides both a background rhythm and a refreshing water source for locals and tourists to cool off in during summer months. Hunter’s Main Street boasts its single-vehicle EMS department, a fire station, an old and dusty post office, and the Hunter Village City Hall, a small building consisting of a single auditorium and a push-pin bulletin board fixed on its exterior notifying passersby of local news and regulations. (There isn’t that much to report on in this town. A visit to the village’s website contains two notices: one that the village’s three trustees will hold an emergency meeting at 1:00 on October 28, 2022, and a second telling whoever lost something in the vicinity of Karen’s Country Food Truck to please contact Kathleen at extension 4.)

A walk down the street lined with American flags and historic lampposts takes you past an old thrift shop and an antique store. Set back about 25 feet from the street stands the village’s historic Hunter Synagogue. Built in 1914, the building has a white façade interrupted by columns of robins blue and a proud stained-glass Magen David gracing the top of its third story.

Hunter’s Scoharie Creek is a fun cooling-off option for the summer visitors who, even after a hundred years, continue to converge on the town where not too much has changed