“Mexicans Are Just Like Every Oriental People”: The Southwest in Sholem Asch’s Yiddish Writing by Gil Ribak, University of Arizona Editor’s note: Gil Ribak presented the keynote address about Sholem Asch at the 2017 NMJHS Fall Conference in Las Vegas, New Mexico. n late 1909, a promising received a traditional education, from a a long battle, the con- young Yiddish author by very young age he was drawn to secu- viction was overturned the name of Sholem Asch lar topics and taught himself German. on appeal; these events I visited the United States Since his parents disapproved of his are told in a recent for the first time. He secular studies, he moved to another play titled Indecent that stayed in the country for shtetl with relatives and made a living premiered on Broadway about six months until the summer of as a Torah instructor. Later he made a in early 2017. 1910. Apart from writing scenes about living writing letters for illiterate Polish Gil Ribak New York City’s Jewish immigrant life, peasants, and scholars believe that was Asch was also an avid tenement houses, and sweatshops, Asch an experience which offered him insight traveler who wrote impressions of some also embarked upon coast-to-coast travel into human needs and longings. of those journeys. In 1908, he visited across the United States, from Niagara the Land of Israel for the first time and Falls to the Grand Canyon, and his travel When Asch was about 19 years old, he wrote a series of sketches based on that impressions were serialized in the popu- moved to Warsaw, where he became a visit. His sketches from his travels across lar Yiddish socialist daily, the Jewish Daily protégé of the renowned Yiddish writer America appeared in the Forverts in serial- Forward (Forverts). Yitzhak Leibush Peretz. He published ized form, and in 1926, he published his first Yiddish story at the age of 20. in Yiddish My Travel through Spain. Asch As he was traveling from Chicago to Three years later, in 1903, he married was among the cofounders of the Joint California by train in the early months Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of the Distribution Committee and became of 1910, Asch passed through the prosperous Hebrew teacher and poet involved in other venues in public life – Southwest and recorded his impres- Menahem Mendel Shapiro, something Zionism, the Jewish Agency, and mass sions of the region. When he woke up that brought Asch a measure of finan- protests against the pogroms in Eastern one day, the train was already chugging cial security and allowed him to devote Europe during and after World War I. through New Mexico, and Asch wrote himself to writing. After that war, Asch returned to Europe, that he found himself “in a completely primarily on a fact-finding tour of Lithu- different world.” The writer used a quote Asch soon made a name for himself ania for the Joint Distribution Commit- from the first chapter of Genesis to not only as a prolific writer of stories, tee, and was profoundly shocked and describe the landscape: “And the Earth novels, novellas, theater plays, and travel emotionally disturbed by what he found. was unformed and void, and the spirit diaries, but also as the enfant terrible of of God hovered over the face of the Yiddish literature. In 1907, Asch com- earth.” Asch added, “That’s the way the pleted his sensational play, Got fun nekome (continued on p. 4) earth looked when the first man saw it,” (The God of Vengeance). The play is set in and that he could see “No tree, nothing a brothel, and features Jewish prostitutes INSIDE THIS ISSUE green.” and a lesbian love scene. When it was Sholem Asch’s Yiddish Writing..................1 staged in New York City in 1923, the President’s Column......................................2 Who is Sholem Asch, and what is his play was cut short after six weeks while NMJHS Annual Meeting.............................3 significance to Jewish history? the entire cast and the producer were in- Stan Hordes Honored.................................6 dicted and convicted of obscenity. After 2018 ABQ Jewish Film Fest ......................7 Novelist and playwright Sholem Asch Challah Rising in the Desert.......................8 was born in 1880 in a town called Kutno NMJHS ANNUAL MEETING Sunday, June 3, 2018 in central Poland (then part of Tsarist Interfaith Leadership Alliance....................9 JCC Albuquerque, 3-5 PM 2017 NMJHS Annual Meeting Photos.....11 Russia). He was the youngest of ten chil- See p. 3 dren born to Hasidic parents. Though he Calendar of Upcoming Events................12 Legacy, Volume 32, Number 1, Spring 2018 President’s Column NMJHS Officers and Board of Directors Officers Linda A. Goff, Ph.D., President Richard Melzer, Ph.D., Vice-President Alan Chodorow, Treasurer Cate Dixon, Recording Secretary Sandra Dietz, Corresponding Secretary nsuring the future legacy New Mexico recently Directors of NMJHS is a prior- has been added to a Paula Amar Schwartz, Ph.D., ity for all of us who group of states and Immediate Past President E have a love of history, cities that includes At- Evvie Becker, Ph.D. especially New Mexico lanta, greater Denver, Diane Chodorow Jewish history. Our opportunity to tell Nevada, Pittsburgh, Betty Harvie these stories has expanded since we and Rochester, New Dianne R. Layden, Ph.D. Susan Michelson became one of ten New Mexico Jewish York Leba Freed Pierce organizations selected to participate in NMJHS President Leona Rubin Linda Goff the four-year LIFE & LEGACY pro- Working collab- Naomi Sandweiss gram under the umbrella of the Jewish oratively, the goal of Stuart Simon Community Foundation and Harold each organization is to identify individu- Rae Lee Siporin, Ph.D. Grinspoon Foundation, with additional als who would consider making a gift to Patricia Shapiro support from the Jewish Federation of grow an endowment. The first two years Sarah Winger New Mexico. Each of the ten organi- are devoted to identifying and speaking zations, which include synagogues in with prospective donors. The goal is to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, has its own acquire a minimum of 18 letters of in- legacy team to work toward its endow- tent each year, or a total of 36 or more Mission Statement ment goals. in two years, to contribute $5,000 to the The New Mexico Jewish Historical organization each year. Society is a secular organization that Grinspoon, a major philanthropist, has promotes greater knowledge and un- provided challenge grant opportuni- Currently, NMJHS doesn’t have an en- derstanding of New Mexico’s diverse ties to Jewish communities across the dowment fund. The LIFE & LEGACY Jewish experiences within a broad United States, either to establish or program provides an exciting opportu- cultural context. enhance an endowment to preserve nity to make such a fund a reality. Our these communities and their missions. legacy team members are Lance Bell, Diane Chodorow, Naomi Sandweiss, IN MEMORIAM and Linda Goff. For more information, Legacy is the quarterly newsletter of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society Maurice Turestsky contact a team member. The NMJHS office, [email protected], 505-348- 5520 Wyoming Blvd. NE 1935-2018 Albuquerque, NM 87109 4471, has contact information. Telephone: (505) 348-4471 Michael Schaefer Fax: (505) 821-3351 1949-2018 Your legacy gift today promises that the website: www.nmjhs.org Santa Fe, New Mexico stories and contributions of the Jews email: [email protected] in New Mexico will be kept alive and Gerald “Jerry” Levine Administrator: Anne McCormick passed on to the next generation. Please Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday/Thursday 1929-2018 join us! A 9:30-1:30 PM Austin, Texas Editor: Dianne Layden NMJHS is on Facebook and Twitter. Copy Editor: Barbara Ruzinsky HISTORICAL SOCIETY Please “like” us at Layout: DT Publishing, Santa Fe OF NEW MEXICO https://www.facebook.com/ Printing: Minuteman Press, Albuquerque NewMexicoJewishHistoricalSociety Mailing: Adelante, Albuquerque 2019 New Mexico History Conference Albuquerque, New Mexico and follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NMJewishHS. NMJHS is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Dates and Deadlines Pending Federation of New Mexico. Page 2 New Mexico Jewish Historical Society Page 3 Legacy, Volume 32, Number 1, Spring 2018 The Southwest in Sholem Asch’s Yiddish Writing (continued from p. 1) When he took his train ride across desert disappears. Asch wrote how he America in 1910, Asch was 30 years old. could detect a very familiar smell, that of He was already quite famous, yet hardly orange orchards, and felt as if he was in at the peak of his career. He was famous a Jewish village in the Land of Israel. enough to receive an invitation from Forverts, the most popular Yiddish daily Asch explained to his readers what Los in America, to write serialized columns Angeles means in Yiddish, noting that about America. Asch was amazed by the even if the residents of that city are not desert – “no house, no water, no sign of angels, they surely fly like angels, since al- life” – and you can see “just earth and most everyone in Los Angeles has a car. sky and nothing more.” Here and there, He compared Los Angeles to New York though, Asch did spot a sign of life – City: If you leave the Forverts building on a distant smokestack where “people East Broadway and walk to Broadway discovered secrets of the land, tracked Avenue, a fifteen-minute walk, you have them down and found out that the land to cross three countries – a Jewish coun- hides in its belly springs of oil, or trea- try, an Italian country, and a Chinese sures of silver, concealed cities of cop- one.