Sholem Asch

Sholem Asch (Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz; 1 November 1880 – 10 July 1957), also written Shalom Ash, was a Polish-Jewish novelist, dramatist, and essayist in the Yiddish language who settled in the United States. A prolific and widely translated writer, Asch wrote about Jewish life in Eastern Europe and America, producing novels, short stories, and plays that reached international audiences. Asch initially wrote in Hebrew, but, on the advice of the Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz, he subsequently decided to write only in Yiddish, becoming a significant cultural figure in the Yiddishist movement.

Asch's career was marked by both critical acclaim and controversy. His 1904 work A Shtetl offered an idyllic portrait of traditional Polish-Jewish life. In 1920, a 12-volume set of his collected works was published in honor of his 40th birthday. His 1906 play God of Vengeance, set in a Jewish brothel and featuring a lesbian relationship, sparked fierce debates both within the Jewish community and the greater political landscape. God of Vengeance encountered bans, arrests, and an obscenity trial when it played on Broadway in 1923. Lord Chamberlain banned the London production in 1946. Asch's trilogy Three Cities (1929–31) chronicled Jewish life in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. Asch was awarded Poland's Polonia Restituta decoration in 1932.

In his later career, Asch wrote another trilogy: The Nazarene (1939), The Apostle (1943), and Mary (1949), about the lives of Jesus, Paul, and the Virgin Mary. While Asch intended these works as a bridge between Jews and Christians and remained Jewish throughout his life, the trilogy generated controversy and many critics within the Jewish literary community viewed the books as promoting Christianity. Time Magazine praised the series, in a review of the final book in the trilogy, published in 1949.

Asch was a founding member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and was active in relief efforts for Jewish war victims in Europe. In 1953, Asch left the United States, after being questioned by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and amid ongoing controversy over his writing. He stated, "I am returning to England with a broken heart." He then split his time between London, continental Europe, and Israel. He died in London in 1957. His house in Bat Yam, Israel, is now the Sholem Asch Museum.

Asch was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

In 2023, Asch was recognized as a notable Yiddishist figure in the exhibit, Yiddish: A Global Culture, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. This exhibit was curated by Chief Curator David Mazower, and curators Mindle Cohen and Caraid O'Brien. O'Brien has also translated Asch's plays into English and was credited by The New York Times with contributing to a modern revival of interest in Asch's work.

Asch's work has been translated into English, Hebrew, French, German, Russian and other languages.

In recent years, his hometown of Kutno, Poland has hosted the Sholem Asch Festival to honor him.