Asch, Sholem or Shalom (shō`ləm ăsh, shä`ləm), 1880–1957, Jewish novelist and playwright, b. Poland. He first came to the United States in 1909, was naturalized in 1920, and lived in various parts of Europe and the United States. He settled in Israel in 1956. One of the most widely known Yiddish writers, he won his first success with the play The God of Vengeance, produced by Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1910 and given in many languages and places since then. Among his works available in English translations are the novels Mottke the Thief (1917), Uncle Moses (1920), Three Cities (1933), The War Goes On (1935), The Nazarene (1939), The Apostle (1943), One Destiny (1945), East River (1946), Mary (1949), Salvation (1951), Moses (1951), A Passage in the Night (1953), and The Prophet (1955). His two collections of short stories and novelettes are Children of Abraham (1942) and Tales of My People (1948). Asch's writings often depict Jewish life in Europe and in the United States, and later works reflect the common spiritual heritage of Jews and Christians. Several of his plays were very successful in the Yiddish theater in New York City.

Asch, Sholem

(born Nov. 1, 1880, Kutno, Pol., Russian Empire—died July 10, 1957, London, Eng.) Polish-born U.S. novelist and playwright. Much of his writing concerns the experience of Jews in eastern European villages or as immigrants in the U.S. (to which he himself immigrated in 1914). It includes the play The God of Vengeance (1907) and the novels Mottke the Thief (1916), Uncle Moses (1918), Judge Not (1926), and Chaim Lederer's Return (1927). In later, more controversial works, he explored the common heritage of Judaism and Christianity. His career was outstanding for both output and impact, and he is one of the best-known writers in modern Yiddish literature.

Asch, Sholem (or Shalom) (1880–1957) writer, playwright; born in Kutno, Poland. He studied at the Hebrew school in his village, then moved to Warsaw, Poland (1899), where he wrote stories, plays, poems, and novels in Hebrew and Yiddish. He emigrated to New York City (1909), and began as a writer for Yiddish newspapers there. His play, The God of Vengeance, enjoyed considerable success in a production in Berlin, Germany (1910) and several other of his plays would be produced in the Yiddish theater in New York. He continued his prolific career as a writer, occasionally in English, but mostly in Yiddish, and although he became a U.S. citizen in 1920 and long maintained a home in Florida, he often lived abroad. Most of his works dealt with Jewish subjects, as in Mottke the Thief (1917) and Three Cities (1933). His most famous books (to English readers) formed a trilogy—The Nazarene (1939), The Apostle (1943), and Mary (1949)—in which he attempted to portray Jesus, Paul, and Mary in a way that bridged Christianity and Judaism, but he so antagonized some American Jews that he moved to Israel in 1956.