Sholem Asch born Szulim Asz (Yiddish: שלום אַש), also written Shalom Asch (1 November, 1880, Kutno - July 10, 1957, London) was a Polish-born American Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language.

Asch was one of ten children of Moszek Asz (1825 Gabin-1905 Kutno), a cattle-dealer and innkeeper, and Frajda Malka, nee Widawska (1850 Łęczyca), and received a traditional Jewish education; as a young man he followed that with a more liberal education obtained at Włocławek, where he supported himself as a letter writer for the illiterate Jewish townspeople. From there he moved to Warsaw, where he met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of the Polish-Jewish writer, M.M. Shapiro. Influenced by the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), initially Asch wrote in Hebrew, but I.L. Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish.

He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and the U.S. in 1910. He sat out World War I in the U.S. where he became a naturalized citizen in 1920. He returned to Poland. He later moved to France, visited Palestine again in 1936, and settled in the U.S. in 1938.

His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919) is one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, about the antisemitic Chmielnicki Uprising in mid-17th century Ukraine and Poland. When his 1907 drama, God of Vengeance — which is set in a brothel and whose plot features a lesbian relationship — was performed on Broadway in 1923, the entire cast was arrested and successfully prosecuted on obscenity charges, despite the fact that the play was sufficiently highly esteemed in Europe to have already been translated into German, Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Italian, Czech and Norwegian. His 1929–31 trilogy, Farn Mabul (Before the Flood, translated as Three Cities) describes early 20th century Jewish life in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. His Bayrn Opgrunt (1937, translated as The Precipice), is set in Germany during the hyperinflation 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.

A celebrated writer in his own lifetime, a 12-volume set of his collected works was published in the early 1920s; in 1932 he was awarded the Polish Republic's Polonia Restituta decoration and was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club. However, he was later to offend Jewish sensibilities with his 1939–1949 trilogy, The Nazarene, The Apostle, and Mary, which dealt with New Testament subjects. The Forward, New York's leading Yiddish-language newspaper, not only dropped him as a writer, but also openly attacked him for promoting Christianity.

Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel (although he died in London). His house in Bat Yam is now the Sholem Asch Museum. The bulk of his library, containing rare Yiddish books and manuscripts, including the manuscripts of some of his own works, is held at Yale University.

His sons were: Moszek Asz Moses "Moe" Asch born 2/12/1905, Warsaw, died 19/10/1986, USA, was the founder and head of Folkways Records. Natan Asz/Nathan Asch, born 1902, Warsaw, died 1964, USA, was also a writer.

Contents 1 Works 1.1 Discography 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Works

A Shtetl ("The Village"), 1904 or earlier. Story. Mitn Shtrom (With the Stream), 1904 novel and 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, 1918 (translated into English 1938), play 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 Urteyl (Death Sentence), 1924 Khaym Lederers Tsurikkumen (The Return of Khaym Lederer), 1927 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 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 Children of Abraham, 1942, short stories The Apostle, 1943, novel One Destiny, 1945 East River, 1946 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

[edit] Discography

• In the Beginning: Bible Stories for Children by Sholem Asch (Performed by Arna Bontemps) (Folkways Records, 1955)
• Joseph and His Brothers: From In the Beginning by Sholem Asch (Performed by Arna Bontemps) (Folkways Records, 1955)
• Jewish Classical Literature: Read by Chaim Ostrowsky (Folkways Records, 1960)
• Nativity: Sholem Asch's Story of the Birth of Jesus (Performed by Pete Seeger) (Folkways Records, 1963)
• Readings from the Bible - Old Testament: Compiled by Sholem Asch (Performed by Harry Fleetwood) (Folkways Records, 1972)
• Sholem Asch: A Statement and Lecture at Columbia University, N.Y. October, 1952 (Folkways Records, 1977)

[edit] References

• —, Sholem Asch, on the site of the Yale University Library, Judaica Collection.
• Bell, June D., "Sholem Asch's Yiddish drama God of Vengeance(1907)" on the All About Jewish Theater site.
• The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Asch, Sholem
• Umansky, Ellen, "Asch's Passion" on Nextbook, mostly about his controversial trilogy that began with The Nazarene

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sholem Asch

• Sholem Asch Discography at Smithsonian Folkways

This article lacks a Yiddish name or text.