My Name is Asher Lev
Judy Kirby looks at this 1972 story of a Jewish artist in New York
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. Penguin. ISBN 978 014119 056 3. £9.99. Asher Lev is a young man who makes waves in his community. It is a strict orthodox one in 1950s New York, burdened with the rescue of Jews in hostile lands. Asher’s father works for the Ladover community Rebbe, often away from home in mysterious circumstances, possibly in Russia where religious persecution of Ladover diaspora Jews is fierce.
But Asher will not fully conform. He paints, ceaselessly, to the distress of his father. Strictly observant Jews don’t do Art. But Asher always goes his own way, regardless, with tragic consequences. When he produces a painting that astonishes the NY art world and outrages his community, his rejection, and ejection, is assured.
For readers unfamiliar with the life of strictly observant Jews, this novel (first published in 1972) is a revelation. A compact community that prays together, lives together, studies together, may seem like a dream on earth, but what happens when one born into such a community rebels? Can ‘community’ ever deal with rebellion in a constructive way?
It is a story for all of us who yearn for community.
