Summary

Asher introduces himself as the Asher Lev, “the notorious and legendary Lev of the Brooklyn Crucifixion.” Because he is an artist, particularly an observant Jew who painted a crucifixion painting, Asher has become, in adult life, “a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflictor of shame upon my family, my friends, my people…” At the same time, Asher says that it’s time he tried to defend himself by telling his story. “But I will not apologize,” he writes. “It is absurd to apologize for a mystery.”

Asher’s ancestors were all true believers in Judaism. His great-great-great-grandfather was, according to Asher’s father Aryeh, a most accomplished man, traveling the world to “do good deeds and bring the Master of the Universe into the world.”. As a young boy, Asher heard so many stories about this ancestor that later he often appears in his...