Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America (1996) by Seymour "Sy" Brody

“Jennie Grossinger turned a small rundown Catskill Mountain farm into a large hotel that became an American Institution. The catch slogan ‘Grossinger's Has Everything for the Kind of Person Who Likes to Come to Grossinger's,’ tells the story of its success.

Jennie Grossinger was born on June 16, 1892, in Baligrod, a small village in Galicia, Austria, to Malka (Grumet) and Asher Selig Grossinger. Her mother was the daughter of an innkeeper and her father was an estate overseer. Her parents saved enough money to immigrate to America in the hopes of a better life.

They lived on the lower East Side of New York City where Jennie went to public and Jewish schools. She left the schools to become a button hole maker, earning two dollars a week for an eleven hour day. In 1912, she married her cousin, Harry Grossinger, and moved next door to her parents. She worked as a waitress in her father's dairy restaurant. In 1914, her father's health was failing and they decided to move to the Catskill Mountains where they bought a farm in Ferndale, NY. In order to make ends meet, they took in summer boarders. They gave their guests what they wanted: kosher food and a vacation away from the city heat.”