By Bill Simons

Education, culture, recreation and religion – both its study and practice – are Chautauqua Institution’s pillars. Nestled in a rural, small-town parcel of southwestern New York state, the 750-acre community hugs Lake Chautauqua. Although primarily a nine-week summer Brigadoon, some year-round Chautauquans brave the winter. Often passed down through familial generations, roomy Victorian homes with distinctive porches set the architectural tone. Bestor Plaza serves as the town common. There are also hotels, condominiums, churches, restaurants, stores, classrooms, performance venues, a library, an art gallery and administrative offices. The amphitheater – where presidents, Noble laureates, entertainers and clergy have held court – has evidenced the morality to which Chautauqua aspires. Rather than fleeing, Chautauquans rushed onto that stage on August 12, 2022, when novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed to subdue the would-be assassin and to administer life-saving medical care.
Aside from bicycles and free buses, the streets are for walking. Cars are parked on the periphery of the grounds. The Chautauqua demographic leans toward affluent, white, well educated, friendly and liberal. A heterogenous assortment of Jews is integral to Chautauqua 2025. However, that was not always the case. 
Founded in 1874 by Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller, entrepreneur and philanthropist, to strengthen Protestant Sunday school teaching, Chautauqua Institution evolved over the decades from Protestant exclusivity to interfaith pluralism. Aside from an incognito work retreat by composer George Gershwin in 1925 and the subsequent residential segregation of Jewish musicians from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” long kept Jews from renting or purchasing property at Chautauqua. They could, however, attend events through the purchase of a day pass. In 1959, Jewish services were held at Chautauqua for the first time, and the Hebrew Congregation formally organized in 1960. The first Jewish purchase of a home on the grounds received approval in 1965. The Everett Jewish Life Center opened in 2009, with the Chabad Jewish House following in 2014. The Methodist Church makes its sanctuary available for Saturday morning Shabbat services. Various venues sponsor Jewish events. And there is a Jewish presence in the Department of Religion. Today, approximately 25 percent of Chautauqua residents are Jewish.
In the interregnum between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, controversy, consequential to Jews, roiled at Chautauqua. In 2023, the institution had named Rafia Khader, a Muslim woman, director of religion programs. Her December 2024 article in Interfaith America rejected accusations of terrorism when describing Hamas’ initial 2023 attack on Israel as a “momentous October day.” Khader also wrote of her discomfort of working with Jews: “I was nervous about how I would interact with the Jewish members… knowing that at least one of them worked for a Zionist organization.” Leaders of Chautauqua’s Jewish community expressed strong concern about these and other provocative comments by Khader. Attempts at conciliatory dialogue between Khader and Jewish activists proved unsuccessful. Amidst unresolved tension, Khader announced her February 2025 resignation. Throughout most of the imbroglio, Chautauqua President Michael Hill supported Khader before belatedly expressing qualified misgivings. Simultaneously, Hill was involved in other divisive battles, including allegations that he planned to Disneyfy Chautauqua. Subsequently, Hill stated that he would step down as president. 
Despite disputes, a robust contingent from diverse sectors of Judaism contributed to the vitality of Chautauqua’s summer 2025 season. To the observant, the Jewish presence at Chautauqua is ubiquitous. On the parameter of the commons, The Kosher Tent serves bagel sandwiches, knishes, blintzes and other iconic Jewish treats. It is managed by Rabbi Zalman Vilenkin, director of the Chabad Jewish House, and his staff, primarily comprised of family. I first met a young man who identifies as Yisrael working at The Kosher Tent. I, then, made it a point to stop by each morning and kibbitz with Yisrael. He and I also had longer, more substantive discussions on the porch of the Chabad Jewish House, a residence, sanctuary, event venue and place of learning. Yisrael introduced me to his wife Chaya, who is expecting their first child in late summer. Natives of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, they are both 23 and will soon receive their first Chabad leadership assignment. Yisrael and I discussed the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and other matters of theology, the mission of Chabad-Lubavitch and our own Jewish journeys. One morning, at Yisrael’s invitation, I fulfilled the mitzvah of binding tefillin to my head and upper arm. 
This summer was my fourth time teaching a course at Chautauqua. One of the adult learners in my America in the 1950s course was Ellen Brookstein, three years my junior, a fellow native of Swampscott, MA. She is the daughter of my original rabbi, Martin Katzenstein, the founder of Temple Emanu-El, the first Reform congregation on the North Shore of Boston. Following class, I shared with Ellen my appreciation for the grounding in Jewish ethics and history given to me by her father through memorable sermons. Rabbi Katzenstein also taught me how to keep box score at a baseball game. 
At the Hall of Philosophy, David Bernstein, past president/CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and author of “Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews,” spoke before a large audience primarily comprised of older Jews. Encouraging others to follow his path, Bernstein described his own conversion to political conservatism as former liberal allies embraced antisemitic and anti-Israel positions. 
During Comedy Week, the monologue of Paula Poundstone riffed on her seder encounter with korech, the matzoh and bitter herbs sandwich. 
I had the privilege of joining Rabbi Samuel Stahl, rabbi emeritus of San Antonio’s Temple Beth-El and for decades a pre-eminent voice of Judaism at Chautauqua, for a coffee chat at the Brick Wall Café. In an impressive Kabbalat Shabbat sermon last year, he asserted the primacy of deed over creed in Judaism. During our get-together, Rabbi Stahl gifted me with a mitzvah opportunity by coordinating a phone call with Dana, the recently widowed wife of Bruce Hendin, a Chautauqua friend and former student from my Jewish baseball course. 
Holding Kabbalat Shabbat outdoors by the shore of Lake Chautauqua heightens spirituality. At the Friday, Fourth of July service, Reform Rabbi Elyse Goldstein’s Torah parasha commentary gave contemporary meaning to the sacrifice of the unblemished red heifer. 
As the Kabbalat Shabbat service concluded, I encountered my baseball friend Mark Altschuler, a Chautauqua fixture since 1993. Mark observed, “This is a very comfortable place to be a Jew.”