Last week, Ron Ketelsen, the embattled former president of the Schoharie Count Chamber of Commerce, lashed out at Oblivioni Magazine, which, in June, published an interview with Ketelsen that some readers found hurtful.

In the article, writer Steven S. Drachman traced his family’s history in Sharon Springs back to the early 20th century, when Drachman’s great-grandfather, Rabbi Bernard Drachman, played a pivotal role in the upstate Village’s transformation into a Jewish resort, which it remained for the better part of a century.

The Village’s Jewish and cultural life declined this century, a decline that Ketelsen said was hastened several years ago when the Village repossessed and sold the local synagogue, which was built by Rabbi Drachman in 1904.

In the Oblivioni interview, Ketelsen was asked if Jewish life might someday return to Sharon Springs.

“The Jewish people kind of burned their bridges when they came here,” Ketelsen replied. “The reason that they kind of burned their bridges is they were still coming when the synagogue was open, but they were so entitled and so demanding that people didn’t want them to come anymore, because they were — I mean, this is bad, but they were very dirty and they would leave trash everywhere, and they would just throw stuff down and walk away and leave it. They would. The last person that had them stay here, he had a bed-and-breakfast, and they came, stayed there for three days, and then they left in the middle of the night, and they plugged all of the toilets with baby diapers. They turned on the air conditioners, all the lights, and they locked the doors, took the keys, left in the middle of the night, never paid. And that was the end of it. They never, nobody will take them back now….”

Drachman asked Ketelsen why, in his opinion, they behaved so badly. 

“Just because they felt entitled,” Ketelsen explained. “I don’t know why.”

According to Ketelsen, arson was also an issue during this period.  

“We have numerous places,” Ketelsen said, “that they moved the furniture out one day and they mysteriously caught on fire the next day, and they collected the insurance on them.” Many fires over the years in Sharon Springs, Ketelsen said, were caused by something he called “Jewish lightning.”

In the interview, Ketelsen also described an example from his own life. 

“I used to have an antique store in the Roseboro [Hotel],” he recalled, “and one day, this rabbi came in and he had all these kids, and without saying a word, he just goes over and starts, opens up the door, starts to go upstairs. I’m like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ ‘I’m taking these kids upstairs,’ I’m like, ‘No, you’re not. I mean, you can’t go up there.’ ‘Yeah, I’m taking these kids upstairs, upstairs,’ and wouldn’t listen to me. I finally had to go over and tell him that he had to leave. So I’m sitting there, and somebody comes and says, ‘Hey, I just thought you should know there’s this man, this Jewish man, and he’s taking all these kids up your fire escape in the back, and he’s trying to get a window open to go up there.’ So I had to go out and tell him, ‘Hey, leave, or I’m going to have to call the sheriff.’ I mean, what is that? Who does that? You know? So they haven’t come back.”

When Drachman said that not all Jewish people are bad, Ketelsen readily agreed. 

“I know,” he said. “I have a very good friend. One Jewish person is left [in Sharon Springs], and he owns the Brustman House and, very good friend of mine. He’s not, what do you call the very — where you practice the, you know, the kosher stuff…. I call him our ‘token Jew’ because he’s the last person here.”

Subsequently, Ketelsen resigned from the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce, which wrote, in its announcement, “Any views, statements, or opinions expressed by Mr. Ketelsen are made in his personal capacity and do not reflect the views, values, or positions of the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce. We remain committed to representing our members with integrity, inclusivity, and professionalism.” The Chamber did not mention the Oblivioni article or Ketelsen’s statements in its announcement.

Ketelsen did not contact Oblivioni Magazine to seek a retraction or correction. However, when contacted by the Cobbleskill Times-Journal for comment, Ketelsen said, “Drachman’s article misrepresented my statements and presented them without proper context. I value my relationships with members of the Jewish community, many of whom are close friends. When they read the article, they found the characterization inaccurate and inconsistent with their experience of me. Having been a longtime resident of this community, I have great respect for the Jewish community’s contributions to Sharon Springs. The suggestion that I hold anti-Semitic views is both false and contrary to my record of community involvement.” 

In a response to Ketelsen’s accusation of inaccuracy, Drachman wrote, “I neither ‘misrepresented’ nor represented Ron’s statements one way or the other. I just published them. I didn’t ‘characterize’ him as good or bad or as anything other than president of the Sharon Historical Society, owner of the Roseboro Hotel, a Member of the Schoharie County Joint Planning Board and President of the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce. If anyone has made a ‘suggestion’ that Ron ‘hold[s] anti-Semitic views,’ it wasn’t me. As for the ‘proper context’ that he said I left out, here it is: I asked him whether Jewish life might return to Sharon Springs. He said, ‘No. No.’ Then he elaborated. I recorded his statements, and then I published them.” 

Timothy Knight, Mayor of the Village of Middleburgh, also weighed in on the controversy.

In an editorial for the Mountain Eagle and the Schoharie News entitled “Good Riddance,” Knight wrote, “A nasty scandal had been percolating throughout the month of July surrounding now former Chamber of Commerce President Ron Ketelsen, who allegedly told a Jewish journalist exploring his family’s roots in the Village of Sharon Springs a litany of outrageously antisemitic comments that are unbecoming of a business leader….

“In my opinion,” Knight wrote, “although these racist remarks are unacceptable in any context — especially when there is a rising tide of antisemitism occurring throughout the western world currently — to be uttered by the representative of the county’s business community was a black eye upon us all, and was advertising the wrong kind of message. Mr. Ketelsen’s resignation is a good first step, but the Chamber of Commerce should recommit itself to its purpose of ‘Together we can continue to make Schoharie County the best place to live, work and play’ with particular emphasis placed on the word ‘together,’ as our future growth and success depends upon it.”

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Photograph by Steven S. Drachman.