Howling in Berkeley
I enjoyed your cover story on the Allen Ginsberg exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (“Eyes of a generation,” May 17) and hope to see the exhibit soon.
I must note, however, that Berkeley shares the spotlight with San Francisco as the Bay Area home of Mr. Ginsberg. “Howl” was not written exclusively in an apartment on Montgomery Street, San Francisco. Portions of the poem were also written in a rose-covered cottage on the 1600 block of Milvia Street, Berkeley — opposite the current Allen Ginsberg Memorial Poetry Garden at Berkeley Arts Magnet at John Greenleaf Whittier Elementary School. I believe this is the only public lot in America named for the late poet, or at least the only property attached to a public school.
Steve Rosenbaum | Berkeley
‘Jerusalem of all Europe’
We really appreciated and enjoyed your article on the Vilnius Ghetto (“Online map recreates the now-vanished Vilnius Ghetto,” May 17). It was of particular interest to my wife Judy and me, as we spent a month there recently. In addition to my taking a course at the University of Vilnius on Advanced Yiddish, Judy and I established the first complete Yiddish-language library in Lithuania.
The city name has many spellings, although it is not commonly known in Jewish circles as Vilna. The Yiddish iteration of Vilnius is “Vilne.” It has incredible historical importance, often referred to as the Jerusalem of Eastern Europe. Many would say it is the Jerusalem of all of Europe and the seat of the greatest of Yiddish literature and culture.
Although the Warsaw Ghetto, and Vilne to a lesser extent, are the ghettos best known, there were hundreds of similar ghettos throughout Europe with Jewish heroes who escaped and became partisans and fought the Nazis.
Paul S.D. Berg | Oakland
Tygerpen again?
I am disappointed that this is still an issue (“Bring back Tygerpen,” letters, May 24). Obviously j. made an editorial decision based on reader feedback. I would venture that a majority of readers found the columns boring, as well as offensive. Certainly not funny. Jerry Seinfeld is funny. Art Buchwald and Woody Allen are funny. I could list hundreds if not thousands of Jewish columnists, performers and just plain Jews (Old Jews Telling Jokes, for example) who are funny. Tygerpen would not make the cut. Adolescent potty humor is not appropriate for most of the readership of j.
I’m sure you and many others have noticed that virtually all letters “requiring” an explanation for your editorial decision come from the “Lamorinda” area of the East Bay, and all sound as though written by the same person. Please … enough already!
Allan Altman | Larkspur
New face of old Jew-haters
We should tremble and fear the Muslim-funded and -supported U.C. divestment “successes.” They have nothing to do with Israel.
It is the age-old Jew hatred in newer clothes. Where are the U.C. resolutions condemning Muslim Holocaust denial, barbaric denigration of women, public executions of homosexuals, murderous rampages against Christian churches, etc.; the list goes on and on and on. The students of today will sit in the governments of tomorrow. Throughout our society we see the advancement of Islamic causes and a mind-numbing unwillingness to see the danger.
Mark Levine | Moraga