The Apostle

Asch's next great trilogy (after Three Cities) dealt with the founders of Christianity & was comprised of The Nazarene (1939) The Apostle (1943) and Mary (1949). They were enthusiastically received by the English-language press, but not by the Yiddish. The Yiddish daily Forward, to which Asch had hitherto been a regular contributor, not only refused to publish the work, but openly attacked the author for encouraging heresy and conversion by preaching Christianity. Only a very few critics discussed the literary merits of the book, most of the Jewish press following the Forward's lead in attacking him. The result was an estrangement between Asch and the Yiddish reading public which never healed. His last book was The Prophet (1955) about Deutero-Isaiah.