The most intriguing character in the book is the Rebbe, who has absolute direction over the lives of members of his community. At the same time, we get a vivid picture of the fashionable New York art scene in which both Asher and his mentor want to succeed and make money.Īlthough Asher puts his art above every other consideration, he remains, in all other respects, a loyal and observant member of his community. With him, he learns to distinguish between working with true artistic integrity, and simply following the fashion, or doing what will sell. These passages, when Asher sees some scene in a visionary way, and wants to draw or paint it, are some of the most powerful in the book.Īll this comes to a climax when Asher, much to the disapproval of his family, studies with a world-renowned Jewish sculptor, Jacob Kahn, who is non-observant and thoroughly secular. In addition to giving a not unsympathetic picture of a Hasidic community, the novel vividly conveys the strength of an artistic vocation, and how art enables us to see the world differently. Asher absolutely refuses to go to Vienna with his parents, and, furthermore, prevails on his mother to stay with him in New York rather than support her husband in Europe. It all comes to a head when his father is sent abroad by the Rebbe to rebuild Ladover communities in Europe, after the devastation of the Holocaust, and also to provide a spiritual home for Jews trying to get out of Russia, where they are having a hard time under the Communist regime. Tensions increase steadily throughout his adolescence, because his father disapproves, on religious grounds, of his son spending his time on art. Home life is not easy: his mother is ill, and his father travels a great deal, delivering messages for their beloved Rebbe, or spiritual leader. Instead of concentrating in class, he draws - sometimes on the pages of sacred books, to the horror of his teachers at the Yeshiva. Everything he saw along the streets of New York, every person, comes in his head as something he sees in a particular way and wants to depict. From a young age, he discovered in himself not just a talent, but an overwhelming passion, for drawing. We first encounter Asher Lev, whose story this is, as a young boy who is growing up as a member of this community. As they are a highly enclosed group, this novel by Chaim Potok offers a welcome window into one such community, fictionalised as the Ladover, but based on the Chabad of Brooklyn Heights in New York.

Stemming from religious revivals in the 18th century in what is now Western Ukraine, they are the fastest-growing form of Judaism, and, in Jerusalem, for example, form more than one third of the population. Men wear long black coats, unusual hats (sometimes of fur), and have curls ( payot) dangling down their cheeks, while women are also in black and wear wigs. MOST people will at some point have seen Hasidic Jews with their distinctive form of dress.

The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok