My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok about a "Ladover" (a fictional movement based on Chabad-Lubavitch) Hasidic Jewish boy from Brooklyn, Asher Lev, who is a loner with artistic inclinations. Lev fights with his family and the people of his Hasidic sect for the right and freedom to use his gift, against the tendency of his people to view being an artist as a waste of time. His father is a very important member of the sect. Potok continued Asher Lev's story in the book The Gift of Asher Lev .

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Plot

This is the story of Asher Lev, a boy born with a prodigious artistic ability into a Hasidic Jewish family in 1940s Brooklyn. During Asher's childhood, his artistic gift brings him into conflict with the members of his devoutly religious sect, who value things primarily as they relate to their faith and who consider art not related to Judaism to be at best a waste of time and possibly a sacrilege. It brings him into particularly strong conflict with his father, a man who has devoted his life to serving their leader, the Rebbe, by traveling around the world bringing the teachings and practice of their sect to other Jews, and who is by nature incapable of understanding or appreciating art.

In the middle is Asher's mother, who in Asher's early childhood was severely traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed while traveling for the Rebbe; she suffers anxiety for her husband's safety during his almost constant traveling. Asher's father declares Asher's gift to be from the realm of the demonic, especially when he finds his son neglecting his studies and copying paintings of nude women and crucifixions of Jesus, and he tries to suppress Asher's drawing and painting.

Yet the gift will not be denied, and finally the Rebbe intercedes and allows Asher to study under one of the greatest living artists, Jacob Kahn, a non-observant Jew who is an admirer of the Rebbe. Asher grows up to be a formidable artist as an apprentice of Jacob Kahn, and even his father cannot help but be proud of his son's success. However, the gift finally calls upon Asher to paint his masterpiece--a work which uses the symbolism of the crucifixion to express his mother's torment. This imagery so offends his parents and his community that he is pressured to leave. Asher goes away not wanting to hurt the ones he loves further.

Characters

Asher Lev - narrator and main protagonist. He is a Ladover Hasidic Jew and the book follows his growth from a four-year-old boy until shortly after his college graduation.

Aryeh Lev - Asher's father. He works for the Rebbe traveling throughout Europe building yeshivas and saving Jews from Russian persecution.

Rivkeh Lev - Asher's mother. She spends half of the novel earning degrees, including a Ph.D., in Russian; she later goes to Europe with Aryeh to help him.

Jacob Kahn - A painter, sculptor, and unobservant Jew to whom Asher is apprenticed and learns to become a great artist.

Anna Schaeffer - Gallery owner usually described as a "greedy, old woman" by Jacob Kahn, although they are good friends. She hosts all of Asher's shows and is responsible for his fame.

Reb Yudel Krinsky - A Russian Jew rescued from Siberia by Asher's father, he plays a pivotal role in Asher's understanding of his father's work in helping others all over the world, and also as an influence in Asher's artistic development as proprietor of the store where Asher buys art supplies.

The Rebbe - The Rebbe is probably the most important character in the book, in the sense that it is he who orders Aryeh to travel all over, and it is he who first understands that Asher's gift needs to be developed under the tutelage of a great artist.

Yaakov - Rivkeh's brother, he is never spoken of in detail. His death in a car accident in Detroit while on a mission for the Rebbe threw Rivkeh into a depressive state.

Yitzchok - Ashers's uncle. He bought Asher's paintings and Asher lived with him for a while.

Criticism

This book explores Potok's central themes of conflicting traditions (in this case the tradition of Judaism and the tradition of art), father versus son, contentedness with one's life versus peace in the family (the Jewish value of "shalom bayit "), and the traditional Jewish world versus secular America. Considered one of Potok's best works, it has a sequel, The Gift of Asher Lev . The first "Brooklyn Crucifixion", a work by Asher which plays a central role in the novel's conclusion, is an actual painting by Potok, who was an accomplished artist as well as a novelist and rabbi; the second Crucifixion, which is described in the book as being superior to the first, does not have a real-life counterpart.

The book is a thinly disguised depiction of the Lubavitch community. "Brooklyn Parkway", with its heavy traffic and island promenades, is a reference to Eastern Parkway. However, contrary to popular opinion, the character of Yudel Krinsky is not meant to refer to Chaim Yehuda Krinsky, one of the assistants to Rabbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Trivia

Potok once stated that of all his fictional characters, Asher Lev was the one with whom he identified the most. ^[1]

Various artists and art works are mentioned including Picasso's Guernica and Marcel Duchamp and his Dada art.

This book is required reading for numerous school districts across the United States and Canada.

Acoustic guitarist/vocalist Devin Bustin has a musical project called "Asher Lev." ^[2]

See also

• Bildungsroman

Notes

it:Il mio nome è Asher Lev