Sholem Asch (1880–1957)

Abstract

We reprint the following essay by Ber Mark, the Polish-Jewish historian, to mark the centenary of the birth of the Yiddish novelist Sholem Asch, who was born in 1880. It was written shortly after Asch's death in 1957, and is included in a Collection of essays from the Yiddish, ‘The Way We Think’, compiled and translated by Joseph Leftwich, and published by Thomas Yoseloff, New York-London, 1969.

Ber Mark was a leading figure as literary critic in pre-war Poland, spent the war years in the Soviet Union and, upon his return to Poland in 1945, was appointed Director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, in which position he remained to the end of his life. He has written the most authoritative history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and has edited a number of publications issued by the Institute.