This series chronicles the life and artistic journey of a gifted painter growing up within a strict Hasidic community. His extraordinary talent is viewed as a temptation and a threat to his faith, forcing him into difficult choices between his art and tradition. We follow his internal and external struggles, his conflicts with family and community, and his quest for self-identity at the crossroads of two worlds. The narratives delve into themes of faith, art, identity, and the complex relationship between Judaism and the wider world.
Asher Lev is a gifted loner, the artist who painted the sensational Brooklyn Crucifixion. Into it he poured all the anguish and torment a Jew can feel when torn between the faith of his fathers and the calling of his art. Here Asher Lev plunges back into his childhood and recounts the story of love and conflict which dragged him to this crossroads.
Twenty years have passed for Asher Lev. He is a world-renowned artist living in France, still uncertain of his artistic direction. When his beloved uncle dies suddenly, Asher and his family rush back to Brooklyn--and into a world that Asher thought he had left behind forever....