Sholem Asch ( yi, שלום אַש, pl, Szalom Asz; 1 November 1880 – 10 July 1957), also written Shalom Ash, was a
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
, dramatist, and essayist in the
Yiddish language
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
who settled in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Life and work
Asch was born Szalom Asz in
Kutno
Kutno is a city located in central Poland with 42,704 inhabitants (2021) and an area of . Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship since 1999, previously it was part of Płock Voivodeship (1975–1998) and it is now the capital of Kutno County.
Dur ...
,
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
to Moszek Asz (1825,
Gąbin
Gąbin is a small town in Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,065 inhabitants as of December 2021. The Warsaw radio mast, which stood near Gąbin, was the tallest structure in the world until its collapse in 1991.
History
Gąb ...
– 1905,
Kutno
Kutno is a city located in central Poland with 42,704 inhabitants (2021) and an area of . Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship since 1999, previously it was part of Płock Voivodeship (1975–1998) and it is now the capital of Kutno County.
Dur ...
), a cattle-dealer and innkeeper, and Frajda Malka, née Widawska (born 1850,
Łęczyca
Łęczyca (; in full the Royal Town of Łęczyca, pl, Królewskie Miasto Łęczyca; german: Lentschitza; he, לונטשיץ) is a town of 13,786 inhabitants () in central Poland. Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, it is the county seat of the ...
). Frajda was Moszek's second wife; his first wife Rude Shmit died in 1873, leaving him with either six or seven children (the exact number is unknown). Sholem was the fourth of the ten children that Moszek and Frajda Malka had together.
Moszek would spend all week on the road and return home every Friday in time for the Sabbath. He was known to be a very charitable man who would dispense money to the poor.
Upbringing
Born into a Hasidic family, Sholem Asch received a traditional Jewish education. Considered the designated scholar of his siblings, his parents dreamed of him becoming a rabbi and sent him to the town's best religious school (or ''cheder''), where the wealthy families sent their children. There, he spent most of his childhood studying the Talmud, and would later study the Bible and the Haggadah on his own time. Asch grew up in a majority Jewish town, so he grew up believing Jews were the majority in the rest of the world as well. In Kutno, Jews and gentiles mostly got along, barring some tension around religious holidays. He had to sneak through a majority gentile area to get to a lake where he loved to swim, where he was once cornered by boys wielding sticks and dogs, who demanded he admit to killing "Christ"–which Asch did not, at the time, know to be a name for Jesus–or they would rip his coat. He admitted to killing Christ out of fear, but they beat him and tore his coat anyway. Asch never lost his fear of dogs from that incident.
In his adolescence, after moving from the ''cheder'' to the House of Study, Sholem became aware of major social changes in popular Jewish thinking. New ideas and the Enlightenment were asserting themselves in the Jewish world. At his friend's house, Sholem would explore these new ideas by secretly reading many secular books, which led him to believe himself too worldly to become a rabbi. At age 17, his parents found out about this "profane" literature and sent him to live with relatives in a nearby village, where he became a Hebrew teacher.
After a few months there, he received a more
liberal education
A liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free (Latin: ''liber'') human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment ...
at
Włocławek
Włocławek (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Loc ...
, where he supported himself as a letter writer for the illiterate townspeople.
[ Sherman, Joseph (July 13, 2010).]
Asch, Sholem
. ''YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe''. yivoencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2017-04-08. It is in Włocławek where he became enamored with the work of prominent Yiddish writer
I. L. Peretz
Isaac Leib Peretz ( pl, Icchok Lejbusz Perec, yi, יצחק־לייבוש פרץ) (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Cha ...
. It is also where he began writing. He attempted to master the short story and wrote in Hebrew. What he wrote there would later be revised, translated into Yiddish, and ultimately, launch his career.
Young adulthood
In 1899, he moved to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
where he met I. L. Peretz and other young writers under Peretz's mentorship such as
David Pinski
David Pinski (Yiddish: דוד פּינסקי; April 5, 1872 – August 11, 1959) was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the industrial revolution, Pinsk ...
,
Abraham Reisen
Avrom Reyzen (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם רייזען; April 8, 1876 – April 2, 1953), known as Abraham Reisen, was a Yiddish writer, poet and editor, and the elder brother of the Yiddishist Zalman Reisen.
Reyzen was born in Koidanov (Minsk, ea ...
, and
Hersh Dovid Nomberg
Hersh Dovid Nomberg ( yi, הערש דוד נאָמבערג), also
written Hersh David Nomberg (14 April 1876 – 21 November 1927),
was a Polish-Jewish writer, journalist, and essayist
in the Yiddish language.
Biography
Born in the Polish town o ...
. Influenced by the
Haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
(Jewish Enlightenment), Asch initially wrote in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, but Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. Asch's reputation was established in 1902 with his first book of stories, ''In a shlekhter tsayt'' (''In a Bad Time'').
In 1903, he married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of the Polish-Jewish teacher and poet
Menahem Mendel Shapiro
Menahem or Menachem (, from a Hebrew word meaning "the consoler" or "comforter"; akk, 𒈪𒉌𒄭𒅎𒈨 ''Meniḫîmme'' 'me-ni-ḫi-im-me'' Greek: ''Manaem'' in the Septuagint, ''Manaen'' in Aquila; la, Manahem; full name: he, מְנַ ...
.
In 1904, Asch released one of his most well-known works, ''A shtetl'', an idyllic portrait of traditional Polish-Jewish life. In January 1905, he released the first play of his incredibly successful play-writing career, ''Tsurikgekumen'' (''Coming Back'').
He wrote the drama ''Got fun nekome'' (''God of Vengeance'') in the winter of 1906 in Cologne, Germany. It is about a Jewish brothel owner who attempts to become respectable by commissioning a Torah scroll and marrying off his daughter to a yeshiva student. Set in a brothel, the play includes Jewish prostitutes and a lesbian scene. I. L. Peretz famously said of the play after reading it: "Burn it, Asch, burn it!" Instead, Asch went to Berlin to pitch it to director
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...
and actor
Rudolph Schildkraut
Rudolph Schildkraut (27 April 1862 – 15 July 1930) was an Austrian film and theatre actor.
Life and career
Schildkraut was born in Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire to a Jewish family. His parents ran a hotel. He grew up in Brăila, Rom ...
, who produced it at the Deutsches Theater. ''God of Vengeance'' opened on March 19, 1907 and ran for six months, and soon was translated and performed in a dozen European languages. It was first brought to New York by
David Kessler in 1907. The audience mostly came for Kessler, and they booed the rest of the cast. The New York production sparked a major press war between local Yiddish papers, led by the Orthodox ''Tageplatt'' and even the secular
''Forverts''. Orthodox papers referred to ''God of Vengeance'' as "filthy," "immoral," and "indecent," while radical papers described it as "moral," "artistic," and "beautiful". Some of the more provocative scenes in the production were changed, but it wasn't enough for the Orthodox papers. Even Yiddish intellectuals and the play's supporters had problems with the play's inauthentic portrayal of Jewish tradition, especially Yankl's use of the Torah, which they said Asch seemed to be using mostly for cheap effects; they also expressed concern over how it might stigmatize Jewish people who already faced much anti-Semitism. The association with Jews and sex work was a popular stereotype at the time. Other intellectuals criticized the writing itself, claiming that the second act was beautifully written but the first and third acts failed to support it.
''God of Vengeance'' was published in English-language translation in 1918. In 1922, it was staged in New York City at the
Provincetown Theatre in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, and moved to the
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London. on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
on February 19, 1923, with a cast that included the acclaimed Jewish immigrant actor Rudolph Schildkraut.
Its run was cut short on March 6, when the entire cast, producer
Harry Weinberger, and one of the owners of the theater were indicted for violating the state's Penal Code, and later convicted on charges of
obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
.
Weinberger, who was also a prominent attorney, represented the group at the trial. The chief witness against the play was Rabbi Joseph Silberman, who declared in an interview with ''Forverts'': "This play libels the Jewish religion. Even the greatest anti-Semite could not have written such a thing".
After a protracted battle, the conviction was successfully appealed. In Europe, the play was popular enough to be translated into
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
,
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
and
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
. ''
Indecent
Inappropriateness refers to standards or ethics that are typically viewed as being negative in a society. It differs from things that are illicit in that inappropriate behavior does not necessarily have any accompanying legal ramifications.
Co ...
,'' the 2015 play written by
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel (born November 16, 1951) is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play ''How I Learned to Drive.'' A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Bro ...
, tells of those events and the impact of ''God of Vengeance''. It opened on Broadway at the
Cort Theater in April 2017, directed by
Rebecca Taichman
Rebecca Taichman is an American theatre director. In 2017, she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for ''Indecent''.
Life and career
Taichman attended McGill University, Montreal, and graduated from the Yale School of Drama. She w ...
.
He attended the
Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference of 1908, which declared Yiddish to be "a national language of the Jewish people." He traveled to
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
in 1908 and the United States in 1910, a place about which he felt deeply ambivalent.
Later adult career
In the pursuit of a safe haven from the violence in Europe, he and his family moved to the United States in 1914, moving around New York City for a while before settling in
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
. In New York, he began to write for
''Forverts'', the mass-circulation Yiddish daily that had also covered his plays, a job provided both income and an intellectual circle.
Asch became increasingly active in public life and played a prominent role in the American Jewry's relief efforts in Europe for Jewish war victims. He was a founding member of the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
. After a series of pogroms in Lithuania in 1919, Asch visited the country as representative of the Joint Committee, and he suffered a nervous breakdown due to the shock of the horrors he witnessed.
His ''Kiddush ha-Shem'' (1919), chronicling the anti-Jewish and anti-Polish
Chmielnicki Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising,; in Ukraine known as Khmelʹnychchyna or uk, повстання Богдана Хмельницького; lt, Chmelnickio sukilimas; Belarusian: Паўстанне Багдана Хмяльніцкага; russian: ...
in mid-17th century
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
and Poland, is one of the earliest
historical novel
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
s in modern
Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish language, Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus ...
. In 1920, he became a
naturalized citizen
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
of the United States.
Asch returned to Poland in 1923, visiting Germany frequently. The Yiddish literary circle hoped he would stay in Poland, because I. L. Peretz's death in 1915 had left them devoid of a head figure. Asch had no desire to take Peretz's place, moving to Bellevue, France after years and continuing to write regularly for Yiddish papers in the US and Poland. In Bellevue, he wrote his 1929–31 trilogy ''Farn Mabul.'' (''Before the Flood'', translated as ''Three Cities'') describes early 20th century Jewish life in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Warsaw, and Moscow. Ever the traveller, Asch took many trips to the Soviet Union, Palestine and the United States. He always held painters in high regard and formed close friendships with the like o
Isaac Lichtenstein Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
,
Emil Orlik
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
, and
Jules Pascin
Julius Mordecai Pincas (March 31, 1885 – June 5, 1930), known as Pascin (; erroneously or ), Jules Pascin, or the "Prince of Montparnasse", was a Bulgarian artist known for his paintings and drawings. He later became an American citizen ...
. He spoke to the hundreds of mourners at Pascin's funeral after the painter died by suicide.
Asch was a celebrated writer in his own lifetime. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee headed by
Judah L. Magnes published a 12-volume set of his collected works.
In 1932 he was awarded the
Polish Republic's
Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievement ...
decoration and was elected honorary president of the Yiddish
PEN Club
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internation ...
.
In 1930, when Asch was at the height of his fame and popularity, he moved to
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
, then almost immediately moved back to Poland and spent months touring the countryside to do research for his next novel: ''Der tehilim-yid'' (''Salvation''). He then moved into a house outside of Nice and rebuilt it as the "Villa Shalom," with luxuries such as a study facing the sea, a swimming pool, a bowling green, and an orchard. In 1935, he visited America at the Joint Committee's request to raise funds for Jewish relief in Europe.
Asch's next work, ''Bayrn Opgrunt'' (1937, translated as ''The Precipice''), is set in Germany during the
hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...
of the 1920s. ''Dos Gezang fun Tol'' (''The Song of the Valley'') is about the ''halutzim'' (Jewish-Zionist pioneers in Palestine), and reflects his 1936 visit to that region. Asch visited Palestine again in 1936. Then, in 1939, he returned to Villa Shalom for the last time. He delayed leaving Europe until the last possible moment, then reluctantly returned to the United States.
On his second sojourn in the US, Asch first lived in Stamford, Connecticut, then moved to Miami Beach, where he stayed until the early 1950s. He offended Jewish sensibilities with his 1939–1949 trilogy, ''The Nazarene,'' ''The Apostle,'' and ''Mary,'' which dealt with
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
subjects. Despite accusations of conversion, Asch remained proudly Jewish; he had written the trilogy not as a promotion of Christianity but as an attempt to bridge the gap between Jews and Christians. Much of his readership and the Jewish literary community, however, did not see it that way. His long-standing employer, New York Yiddish newspaper ''
Forverts
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a American Jews, Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialis ...
,'' not only dropped him as a writer but also openly attacked him for promoting
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. He subsequently started writing for a communist paper, ''Morgen frayhayt,'' leading to repeated questioning by the
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
. In 1953,
Chaim Lieberman published ''The Christianity of Sholem Asch,'' a scathing criticism of Asch and his Christological trilogy that disgusted even some of Asch's strongest critics. Lieberman's book, and the McCarthy Hearings, led Asch and his wife to leave the US in 1953, whereafter they split their time between London (where their daughter lived), continental Europe, and Israel.
Death and legacy
Asch spent most of his last two years in
Bat Yam
Bat Yam ( he, בַּת יָם or ) is a city located on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the Central Coastal Plain just south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area and the Tel Aviv District. In 2020, it had a population ...
near
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, in a house that the mayor had invited him to build, but died in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
at his desk writing. Due to his controversies, his funeral in London was small. His house in Bat Yam is now the Sholem Asch Museum and part of the MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam complex of three museums. The bulk of his library, containing rare Yiddish books and manuscripts, as well as the manuscripts of some of his own works, is held at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
. Although many of his works are no longer read today, his best works have proven to be standards of Jewish and Yiddish literature. His sons were Moszek Asz/
Moses "Moe" Asch (2 December 1905, Warsaw – 19 October 1986, United States), the founder and head of
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, and Natan Asz/
Nathan Asch
Nathan or Natan may refer to:
People
*Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name
*Nathan (surname)
*Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible
* Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...
(1902, Warsaw – 1964, United States), also a writer. His great-grandson, David Mazower, is a writer and a BBC Journalist.
Inspirations and major themes
Many of Asch's father figures are inspired by his own father. Sholem was believed to have adopted much of his own philosophies from his father, such as his love for humanity and his concern for Jewish-Christian reconciliation. He summed up his father's faith as "love of God and love of neighbor".
Asch often wrote two kinds of characters: the pious Jew and the burly worker. This was inspired by his family, as his brothers dealt with peasants and butchers and fit in with the hardy outdoor Jews of Kutno, which Asch had much pride in. His older half-brothers, on the other hand, were pious Hasidim.
One of Asch's major goals in his writing was to articulate Jewish life, past and present. He placed the Jew at the center of his every work, along with an awareness of the Jewish relationship with the outside world. Some of his most frequent recurring themes were: man's faith, goodness, and generosity. He was repelled and intrigued by Christian violence, and inspired by Jewish martyrdom and survival.
Asch reflected on cosmopolitan interests and concern for the people and conditions he encountered. His fiction can mostly be put into three categories: tales, novels and plays of Eastern European Jewish life (Polish mostly); tales and novels of Jewish life in America; five biblical novels: two on figures in the Hebrew Bible and three on New Testament figures. Smaller groupings included works on the Holocaust and modern Israel. His work was not easily categorized, and straddled the lines between romanticism and realism, naturalism and idealism.
Bibliography
* ''A Shtetl'' ("The Village"), 1904 or earlier, story
* ''Mitn Shtrom'' (''With the Stream''), 1904 novel and play
* ''Tsurikgekumen'' (''Coming Back''), 1905
* ''Moshiakhs tsaytn'' (''Time of the Messiah''), 1906, play
* ''Got fun Nekomeh'' (''God of Vengeance''), 1907, play
* ''Reb Shloyme Nogid'', 1913, novel
* ''Motke Ganev'' (''Motke the Thief''), 1916, novel
* ''Mary'', 1917, play
* ''Der Veg tsu Zikh'' (''The Way to Oneself''), 1917, play
* ''Motke Ganev'' (''Motke the Thief''), 1917, play
* ''Onkl Mozes (Uncle Moses)'', 1918 (translated into English 1938), novel
* ''Kiddush ha-Shem'', 1919 (translated into English 1926), novel
* ''Di Muter'' (''The Mother''), 1919 (translated into English 1930)
* ''Di Kishufmakherin fun Kastilien'' (''
The Witch of Castile''), 1921
* ''Der Toyter Mensch'' (''The Dead Man''), 1922, play (translated into English 2021)
* ''Urteyl'' (''Death Sentence''), 1924
* ''Khaym Lederers Tsurikkumen'' (''The Return of Khaym Lederer''), 1927
* Schalom Asch, "Rückblick," ''Jahrbuch'' (Berlin: Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 1931), pp. 35–77.
* ''Farn Mabul'' trilogy (''Before the Flood'') 1929–31, translated as ''Three Cities'', 1933
* ''Gots Gefangene'' (''God's Captives''), 1933
* ''Der T'hilim Yid'', 1934, translated as: ''Salvation''
* ''The War Goes On'', 1935
* ''The Calf of Papers'', 1936, novel
* ''Bayrn Opgrunt'', 1937, translated as: ''The Precipice''
* ''The Mother'', 1937, novel
* ''Three Novels'', 1938
* ''Dos Gezang fun Tol'' (''The Song of the Valley''), 1938 (translated into English, 1939)
* ''The Nazarene'', 1939, novel
* ''What I Believe'' 1941, essay, 201 pages
* ''Children of Abraham'', 1942, short stories
* ''My Personal Faith'', 1942, Published: London, George Rutledge & Sons, Ltd
* ''The Apostle'', 1943, novel
* ''One Destiny: An Epistle to the Christians'', 1945
* ''East River'', 1946, spent more than 6 months on the
New York Times Best Seller List
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
(1946–7) including one week at #1
[ John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago'', Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992. pp. 21–27]
* ''Tales of My People'', 1948, short stories
* ''Mary'', 1949, novel, unrelated to his earlier work of the same name
* ''Salvation'', 1951
* ''Moses'', 1951, novel
* ''A Passage in the Night'', 1953
* ''The Prophet'', 1955
Discography
* ''In the Beginning: Bible Stories for Children by Sholem Asch (Performed by Arna Bontemps)'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1955)
* ''Joseph and His Brothers: From In the Beginning by Sholem Asch (Performed by Arna Bontemps)'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1955)
* ''Jewish Classical Literature: Read by Chaim Ostrowsky'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1960)
* ''Nativity: Sholem Asch's Story of the Birth of Jesus (Performed by
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
)'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1963)
* ''Readings from the Bible - Old Testament: Compiled by Sholem Asch (Performed by Harry Fleetwood)'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1972)
* ''Sholem Asch: A Statement and Lecture at Columbia University, N.Y. October, 1952'' (
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
, 1977)
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
* Mostly about Asch's controversial trilogy that began with ''The Nazarene''.
* “The Yiddish writer’s re-Judaized imagining of St. Paul turns 75.”
External links
*
*
*
Sholem Asch Discographyat
Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...
* Ben Siegel, , 313 pages.
Alyssa Quint, ''Asch's Diamonds, A New Essay Collection Gives an Oft-neglected Master His Due'' a review in ''
The Jewish Daily Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, '' ...
''
"Workbook" on the Asch-Howe Quarrel*
ttp://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/Stories.html Sara Blacher-Retter reads ''A shtiler gortn'' and ''A dorf-tsadik''A bust of Sholem Asch by Jacob Epstein, from the collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem*
Sholem Asch Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asch, Sholem
1880 births
1957 deaths
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century Polish novelists
American male dramatists and playwrights
American male essayists
American male novelists
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Jewish American novelists
Male essayists
People from Kutno
Polish emigrants to the United States
Polish essayists
Polish male dramatists and playwrights
Polish male non-fiction writers
Polish male novelists
Yiddish-language playwrights