November 1: Sholem Asch

Sholem Asch, the most internationally known and widely translated writer of Yiddish novels, plays, and stories, was born in Poland on this date in 1880. His 1907 drama, God of Vengeance, which focused on religious hypocrisy and featured a brothel and a lesbian scene, was translated into German, Russian, Hebrew, Polish, Italian, Czech, and Norwegian, but when it was performed in English on a Broadway stage in 1923, the entire cast was arrested and convicted on obscenity charges. Asch’s late novels included a trilogy about Jesus of Nazareth that earned him significant hostility in the Jewish community. He spent much of his life after 1914 in the U.S., and some of his late years in Israel, before his death in 1957.

“Manke: There, come on let’s dance...
Orthodox Man: No, no, I can’t.
Manke: What do you mean you can’t?
Orthodox Man: It’s not allowed...
Manke: ‘Not allowed?’ You’ll pay to shtup me but you won’t dance with me?” —Sholem Asch, God of Vengeance