Asher begins to go to art museums where he studies paintings, but is not sure what to make of paintings of nudes, nor paintings of crucifixions. While Asher's father is away, Asher explores his artistic nature and neglects his Jewish studies. Rivkeh ultimately decides to stay in Brooklyn with Asher while Aryeh moves to Vienna alone. Asher becomes very upset about this and refuses to move to Vienna, in spite of requests from his parents and teachers alike. The Rebbe asks Asher's father to relocate to Vienna, which would make it easier to perform his work establishing yeshivas throughout Europe. Throughout the novel she suffers anxiety for her husband's safety during his almost constant traveling, and is frequently seen waiting at the large window of their apartment for her husband or son to return home. Rivkeh is only able to emerge from her depression when she decides to continue her brother's work and obtains the Rebbe's permission to return to college to study Russian affairs. In the middle is Asher's mother, Rivkeh, who in Asher's early childhood was severely traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed while traveling for the Rebbe. Aryeh is by nature incapable of understanding or appreciating art and considers Asher's early drawings to be "foolishness." It brings him into particularly strong conflict with his father, Aryeh, 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.
During his childhood in the 1950s, in the time of Joseph Stalin and the persecution of Jews and religious people in the Soviet Union, Asher's artistic inclination brings him into conflict with the members of his Jewish community, which values things primarily as they relate to faith and considers art unrelated to religious expression to be at best a waste of time and possibly a sacrilege. Potok continued Asher Lev's story in the book The Gift of Asher Lev.Īsher Lev is a boy with a prodigious artistic ability born into a Hasidic Jewish family. Potok was, as well as an author, a painter, and his personal struggle is apparent in his painting titled "Brooklyn Crucifixion." And yet despite this seemingly agonizing struggle, Potok remained active as an artist/writer and engaged in the religion of his upbringing until his death in 2002. Potok asserted that the conflict between tradition and individualism is constant and that the tension between religion and art is lifelong. The book follows Asher's maturity as both an artist and a Jew. His art, however, causes conflicts with his family and other members of his community. Asher is a loner with artistic inclinations. The book's protagonist is Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jewish boy in New York City. My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok, an American author and rabbi.
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