Sholem Asch Loved His Medicine Ball

Yiddish writers Sholem Asch and Peretz Hirshbein had much in common. Both were prolific writers and journalists, global literary celebrities, pioneers of Yiddish art theater, and active in public life. Over the years they met up regularly in Poland, France, and America. The two men also shared a love of nature and the outdoors. Asch liked to swim, ride horses, and go for long walks. Hirshbein was proud of his vitality and physical strength. In 1939 Asch and his wife Madzhe returned to America, settling into a house in Stamford, Connecticut. Two or three years later, Hirshbein and his wife, Yiddish poet Esther Shumiatcher, came east from their home in Los Angeles, seeking a cure for Hirshbein’s degenerative illness. While they met with doctors in New York, their young son, Omus, stayed with Asch and his wife. The story of what happened next was enshrined as Hirshbein family lore, retold here by Omus’s widow, Jessica Hirshbein:

Omus was seven or eight, Yiddish was his first language, and Asch was wonderful with him. He had this heavy medicine ball, and he wanted to build up the boy’s strength, so they played with it. Omus really liked the ball, and Asch promised that when the time came for him to leave, he could take it with him. Well, the day came, and Omus picked up the medicine ball to take it, but Asch evidently said, “Neyn, neyn, dos blaybt do.” (“No, no, the ball stays here.”) And Madzhe said, “Shame on you, Shulem. You told him it was his, so it belongs to him now, not to you.” Then Asch said, “But Madzhe, kh’hob es azoy lib, kh’muz es hobn.” (“I like it so much, I have to have it.”) So she said: “All right, I’ll buy you another one.” And he said, “But I like this one.” And then she told him not to be such a baby! And so when Omus left, he took the medicine ball with him, and it’s been in our closet ever since. It’s one of our favorite family stories. By the way, Esther always used to say that Madzhe was terrific, and she had to be, because of all her children, Sholem was the biggest child of all!