Which meant that his parents just didn’t understand him or his desires to do something so frivilous.Īnd it all comes to a head in his 20s, after he goes to Florence and Paris and has been abroad for many years. He went to school and to synagogue, he studied the Torah, he kept kosher. That’s not to say he wasn’t religious - he was. He had a drive to do it, sometimes not even realizing that he was drawing. Asher’s passion, on the other hand, was to draw. They were both fully committed to their religion, to helping build up yeshivas (schools) around the world, and to helping Jews escape communist countries in the years after World War II. His father was an ambassador for their sect leader, the Rebbe, and his mother ended up going to school to learn Russian to help with the work as well. The basic story - if you haven’t heard - is that of prodigy artist and orthodox Jew Asher Lev’s childhood and teenage years.

I probably haven’t picked up the story of Asher Lev in about 10 years, and doing the #ICTReads challenge gave me a chance to revisit this world of Brooklyn Hasidic Jews and the struggle between religion and art. I’ve briefly talked about this book ( in 2004 and in 2007), but I’ve not written a proper review. It’s in the adult fiction section, but I think high schoolers who are interested in art should read this. Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!Ĭontent: It’s long and often philosophical. First sentence: “My name is Asher Lev, the Asher Lev, about whom you have read in newspapers and magazines, about whom you talk so much at your dinner affairs and cocktail parties, the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion.

Asher lev book