Sholem Asch (Yiddish: ×©×œ×•× × Ö·×©â€Ž, Polish: Szalom Asz; 1
November 1880 â€" 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.Asch was born Szalom Asz in
Kutno, Congress Poland to Moszek Asz (1825, GÄ…bin â€" 1905, Kutno), a
cattle-dealer and innkeeper, and Frajda Malka, née Widawska (born
1850, Šęczyca). 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.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"â€"which Asch did not, at the time, know to be a name for
Jesusâ€"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 at Włocławek, where he
supported himself as a letter writer for the illiterate townspeople.
It is in Wloclawek where he became enamored with the work of prominent
Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz. 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 .
November 1880 â€" 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.Asch was born Szalom Asz in
Kutno, Congress Poland to Moszek Asz (1825, GÄ…bin â€" 1905, Kutno), a
cattle-dealer and innkeeper, and Frajda Malka, née Widawska (born
1850, Šęczyca). 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.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"â€"which Asch did not, at the time, know to be a name for
Jesusâ€"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 at Włocławek, where he
supported himself as a letter writer for the illiterate townspeople.
It is in Wloclawek where he became enamored with the work of prominent
Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz. 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 .
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