Asch, Sholem

(1880–1957)

   Yiddish novelist. Born in Kutno, Poland, Asch was the first Yiddish writer of international reputation. In achieving this he liberated Yiddish literature from its narrow confines and made it part of general Western culture.

   The son of an Orthodox family, Asch had a traditional schooling, and settled in Warsaw. Later he lived in France and the United States and at the end of his life, in Israel at Bat Yam, where his home became the Sholem Asch Museum after his death.

   His early work in Yiddish and Hebrew, such as the story Moyshele (1900), showed the wistful romanticism of a young man. In Warsaw, coming under strong foreign influence and seeing the poverty and yet the humour of town life, he developed the more realistic and genial style of A Shtetl (1904), and continued to write books of social realism Motke Ganev (‘Motke the Thief, 1917) was a typical example. Kiddush ha-Shem (1919; English, 1926), a tale of Jewish martyrdom in the 17 century, was a successful introduction of the historical novel into Yiddish literature. In America, Asch’s writing reflected the life of both gentile and Jew, portrayed in long, animated books such as Farn Mabul (‘Before the Flood’, 1929–31; English, 1933), and his trilogy on the beginnings of Christianity (1939– 49). This last work was attacked by the Jewish press, which accused him of encouraging heresy. He withdrew a little from Jewish life, but his writings remained vigorous and controversial until the end, drawing deeply on Jewish history and tradition, but also aware of the contemporary world.