Sholem Asch (1 November, 1880 – 10 July, 1957) was born in Poland but is known for his writings in Yiddish. Mr. Asch wrote plays, essays as well as novels.
- Sholem Asch also wrote as Shalom Asch or Shalom Ash
- He was born as Szalom Asz in Kutno, Poland and had 9 siblings
- For a time, Sholem supported himself writing letters for illiterate Jewish townspeople.
- Asch’s wife, Mathilde, was the daughter of Polish-Jewish writer M.M. Shapiro.
- At first Asch wrote in Hebrew, but later he switched to Yiddish.
- In 1908 Asch went to the Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference, which holds significance because it was there that Yiddish was declared the national language of the Jewish people.
- In 1919, Asch wrote Kiddush –ha-Shem which is considered the earlist historical novel in modern Yiddish.
- Asch set his play, God of Vengeance, in a brothel. The play featured a lesbian relationship and the Broadway cast was promptly arrested and prosecuted on obscenity charges.
- Unlike many other writers, Asch was celebrated during his own lifetime and elected as honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club (a worldwide associate of writers).
- In 1932 Asch was awarded the Polish Republic’s Polonia Restituta
Zohar – Man of la Book
Years ago I read “The Apostle” by Sholem Asch. I didn’t realize he was Jewish. It did a great job depicting the life of St. Paul in historical fiction form. I need to read more of him.
Actually Asch got a lot of flack for writing The Nazarene, The Apostle, and Mary, which dealt with New Testament subjects.
That probably sounds like a dumb thing to say. With a name like “Sholem Asch” I didn’t realize he was Jewish? My defense is that I was a teenager at the time.