Asher Lev

In the beginning of the book Asher described himself as a "mocker of ideas sacred to Christians" and a "blasphemous manipulator." Although Asher Lev was a great artist whose art sold for hundreds of dollars, he had to put up with the gossips and rumors about him. Asher Lev struggled with his fame and his notoriety. He also struggled with his family's acceptance to his art. He could not identify himself into any group of …

…s, a community traumatized by the Holocaust and focused on the plight of Jews in Stalin's Soviet Union. Asher Lev is an art prodigy in a community that has no place for modern art and no role for the artist. His father, who travels for the Rebbe and undertakes perilous missions to rescue Jews from the USSR, regards Asher's art as silly. He wants his son to excel at Torah and in the academic subjects.