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Uncle Moses: A Novel
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
Sholem Asch
256 books39 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
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January 1, 2023
One of the series written by Sholem Asch recounting the New York City immigrant experience in the early 1900’s. Sweatshops, unions, shtetl culture and poverty are big players. Originally written in Yiddish.
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