Dear Daniel Beekman:
Organizer! Activist! Institution Builder! Anti-Semite? Nah!
Your tiny May 23rd article in The Daily News probably befitting your style, described Jitu Weusi, an icon, whose projects remain a fixture in the lives of so many, unceremoniously.
You disdainfully imply anti-Semitism stemming from a poem submitted by a sixth grader and read over the airwaves in 1969.
Jitu Weusi’s promotion of jazz, America’s only classical art form, and his annual Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival, which serves as NYC’s longest, continually-running grassroots festival dedicated to jazz, include weekly jam sessions where orthodox Jewish musicians perform. Over the past dozen years Brooklyn’s Borough President has provided support every year.
You might want to display objective journalism and facts given the opportunity. You could start by coming to his home going on Monday morning, June 3rd, at Brown Memorial Church, 484 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, as we fete this gentle giant.
Sincerely.
Michael Howard
Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium
1958 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11233
718-773-2252