Dealing with Anti-Semitism
Mr. Potok has written scholarly and popular articles and reviews during his publishing career. Mr. Chaim Potok is a novelist, philosopher, historian, theologian, playwright, artist, and editor. All of Mr. Potok's novels explore the tensions between Judaism and the modern society (Kaupunginkirasto). Chaim Potok was born in the Bronx, New York, on 17 February 1929, to Polish Jewish immigrants, and was educated in Jewish parochial schools. Mr. Potok undertook a serious religious and secular education, first at the Orthodox Yeshiva University, New York, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English (summa cum laude) in 1950. Mr. Potok received his rabbinical ordination in 1954 at Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, and finally at the University of Pennsylvania, he obtained a Ph.D. in 1965(Buning).
"Potok transforms Judaic scholarship to drama. Potok explores the tension inside the religious community. He fuses his interests in Jewish education and twentieth century history, a history that had violently touched his family. This novel serves as Potok's primary vehicle for the examination of the modern Jewish experience. The genesis and substance of every Potok novel is the Jewish religious, historic, and cultural experience in a non-Judaic world. The philosophic and ethical views are derived from the Judaic sources. Potok's affirmative vision, veneration of life, positive assessment of human nature, and pervasive striving for meaning in the midst of chaos, for good in the face of evil will be derived from Judaism (Walden 233). It is about growing up in an anti-Semitic environment.
David, a young Jewish boy, is growing up in the Bronx of New York City. Davi...
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Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher "New Promises, Familiar Story" in the New York Times, December 3, 1975, pg. 43 Contemporary Literary Criticism, volume 26Gale Research Inc., Detroit, Michigan (1983) pg. 372
Merkin, Daphne; “Why Potok is Popular?” Feb 1976 pg.73-75
Contemporary Literary Criticism Volume number 7 Gale Research Company Book Tower Detroit London (1977) Pg.321-323
Nissenson, Hugh, The New York Times Book Review 19 Oct 1975; Contemporary Literary Criticism Volume number 7 Gale Research Company Book Tower Detroit London
(1977) Pg. 321-323
“On Being Proud of Uniqueness,” http://www.lasierra.edu/~ballen/potok/potok.unique.html
Potok, Chaim, In the Beginning; A Fawcett Crest Book, December 1981,
Potok, http://www.lasierra.edu/~ballen/potok/index2.html
In The Chosen, Potok describes the Jewish culture during the period of World War I. Beginning with the affluence of Polish Jews before the war, Potok established a circle of relationships. In the book, there are three main relationships. The first one is father-son, between Danny and his father, Reb Saunders and between Reuven and his father, David Malter. The relationship between Reuven and Danny is the second main relationship in The Chosen. The third main relationship is Hasidism verses Zionism.
in Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, 2008.Literature Resources from Gale.
Sherbok, Dan. "Life Cycle Events." Judaism: history, belief, and practice. London: Routledge, 2003. 534-537. Print.
Chaim Potok’s novel, The Chosen, describes a friendship between two Jewish boys raised in two different Jewish sects. Danny Saunders, a Hasidic Jew, slowly develops a true, long-lasting friendship with Rueven Malter, a modern Orthodox Jew. Although, Danny and Rueven experience difficulties early on in their friendship because of their different religious beliefs and practices, they learn to work through their differences and form a friendship that surpasses all of their religious inconsistencies. The story takes place in the 1940s in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. Jews inhabit most of the Williamsburg area and few non-Jews live here. During this time in the United States Jews experienced an immense amount of persecution because of World War II and the Holocaust. Potok uses his novel to describe the differences between the different sects of Judaism and how the different sects learn to appreciate one another.
Einstein, Stephen. & Kukoff, Lydia. (1989). Every Person's Guide to Judaism. New York: UAHC Press.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
in Twentieth- Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. The. Vol.
Bryfonski, Dedria, and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Volume 8. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. 474-7
Strack, Hermann L. “Anti-Semitism.” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, [n.d.]
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
" The Southern Literary Journal 17.2 (Spring 1985): 54-66. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed.
Throughout the book, 'The Chosen', Chaim Potok used the way of the Jewish lifestyle to teach his readers of the Jewish people. Potok used a variety of techniques including diction where he introduced Jewish terms, the theme of silence, and conflict between father and son to make the novel appealing. Furthermore, this novel tells us of the life of Jews and their commitment to religion; "We are commanded to study His Torah! We are commanded to sit in the light of the Presence! It is for this that we were created!
Forum 19.4 (Winter 1985): 160-162. Rpt. inTwentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 192. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
By developing a relationship between two people who come from completely distinct worlds, Chaim Potok was able to instigate and investigate a profound and deeply moving story of true friendship and the importance of father-son interconnection through self-realization in the work of The Chosen by explicitly introducing a series of challenges that question the morality and judgment of each protagonist. Through his masterpiece and by inserting complex situations, Chaim Potok took to his benefit to display the comparison between his characters and normal people their similarities and differences.
Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol.