Paul Novick papers relating to Sholem Asch

Correspondence, writings, articles and notes by and about Sholem Asch gathered by Paul Novick, editor of the Morgen Frayhayt (Morning Freedom), a Communist Party Yiddish newspaper in New York, the only newspaper willing to publish him at the height of the controversy over his trilogy, Der Man fun Notseres (The Nazarene) (1939), Der Sheliekh (The Apostle) (1943), and Meri (Mary) (1949). Jewish leaders accused Asch of teaching conversion to Christianity, a charge that Asch emphatically denied. The correspondence between Asch and Novick make up a large part of the collection.

The Correspondence consists of letters between Asch and Novick at a time when, due to ill health, Asch was advised by his physician not to defend his controversial works in the press. These letters document Asch's reaction to the controversy. Novick's letters are represented by carbon copies. A small section of other letters, mostly to and from Novick about Asch's works, is filed at the end of the series.

The Writings consist of essays by Asch, divided into one section of complete works, and one of incomplete and untitled works. The essays are organized alphabetically by transliterated Yiddish with the English translation appearing in parentheses. The incomplete works have been summarized. The miscellaneous section contains works about Asch, probably written by Novick. Most of the articles have been placed in restricted fragile papers, and reference photocopies have been supplied. In two cases, only the article about Asch was photocopied, and the rest of the paper itself may be consulted in restricted fragile papers.