The Chosen

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The Chosen

• By Chaim Potok

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my mother is a descendant of a great Hasidic
dynasty and my father was a Hasid, so I come from
that world."
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Chaim Potok

• Born Herman Harold Potok ,February 17, 1929 in
  Brookln, N.Y.
• Parents Benjamin Max (d. 1958) and Mollie
  (Friedman) Potok (d.1985). Father emigrated from
  Poland to the U.S. in 1921 and sold stationery
  before the Depression and was a jeweler
  afterward.
• Childhood the son of Polish immigrants who had
  strong ties to Hasidism and was reared in an
  Orthodox Jewish home.
• "I grew up. . .in a Hassidic world without the
  beard and the earlocks." (NY Times 1/3/88)
  
  
• Siblings Brother became a rabbi,
  both
  sisters married rabbis.

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Hasidism

• The modern Hasidic movement originated in Poland
  in the late 18th Century. It is now the
  strictest of the Jewish denominations.
• Hasidim wanted to protect Judaism from becoming
  too modernized, so they kept their communities
  more separate than did other Orthodox Jews.

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• After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead
  Revisited when he was a teenager, Potok decided
  to become a writer.
• Potok started writing fiction at the age of 16.
• His first submission was to the Atlantic Monthly
  at the age of 17 (the piece was not published but
  Potok received a complimentary note from an
  editor asking if he was writing a novel).

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• Riveted by the world of upper-class British
  Catholics that Waugh brings to life in the novel,
  Potok realized for the first time that fiction
  had the power "to create worlds out of words on
  paper."
• To learn how to write, Potok carefully studied
  the novels of such writers as Ernest Hemingway,
  William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, and Mark
  Twain. Over a period of five years, he spent most
  of his free time reading the novels of great
  writers.

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• At the same time, he became fascinated by less
  restrictive Jewish doctrines, particularly the
  Conservative movement.

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Conservative Judaism

• The name derives from the idea that the movement
  would be necessary to conserve Jewish traditions
  in the U.S., a culture in which Reform and
  Orthodoxy were not believed to be viable.
• Conservative Judaism attempts to combine a
  positive attitude toward modern culture with a
  commitment to Jewish observance.
• Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly
  study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has
  constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the
  Jewish people in varying circumstances.

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Potoks Education

• He attended Yeshiva University and graduated
  summa cum laude
  in English literature in 1950.
• He attended Jewish Theological Seminary of
  America, where he was
  ordained a
  Conservative rabbi.
• Potok served as combat chaplain with the United
  States Army in Korea from 1955 to 1957.
• He taught at several Jewish colleges before
  moving on to become the managing editor of
  Conservative Judaism in 1964.
• After spending a year in Israel,Potok earned a
  Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of
  Pennsylvania.
• Throughout his career in publishing, Dr. Potok
  wrote numerous popular articles and reviews.

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His books

• Potok began his career as an author and novelist
  in 1967 with the publication of The Chosen, which
  stands as the first book from a major publisher
  to portray Orthodox Judaism in the United
  States.
• It is a story about the friendship between the
  son of a Hasidic rabbi and a more
  secularly-minded Jewish boy in Brooklyn.
• Critics praised the book for its vivid rendering
  of the closed Hasidic community, while many
  considered it to be an allegory about the
  survival of Judaism.

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Orthodox Judaism

• Orthodox Jews follow the commandments of the
  Torah strictly.
• Orthodox Judaism believes that both the Written
  and Oral Torah are of divine origin, and
  represent the word of God.
• This is similar to the view of the Conservative
  movement, but the Orthodox movement holds that
  such information is the exact word of God and
  does not represent any human creativity or
  influence

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Rabbi

• The word rabbi originates from the Hebrew meaning
  "teacher."
• The term usually refers to those who have
  received ordination and are educated in matters
  of halacha (Jewish law).
• The state gives rabbis the permission to perform
  weddings.
• The purpose of a rabbi is like that of using a
  judge or a lawyer in civil matters to ensure that
  the law is complied with.
• This differs from the nonJewish concept of a
  minister having some necessary mystical
  connection with God that is required to make the
  ceremony valid.

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• Potok followed The Chosen with a sequel two years
  later called The Promise. He returned to the
  subject of Hasidism for a third time with the
  1972 novel My Name is Asher Lev, the story of a
  young artist and his conflict with the traditions
  of his family and community. Potok followed this
  novel with a sequel, as well, publishing The Gift
  of Asher Lev eighteen years later in 1990.

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• Chaim Potok died July 23, 2002, at his suburban
  Philadelphia home of brain cancer at the age of
  73. He is survived by his wife, Adena two
  daughters, Rena, a Philadelphia-area college
  professor, and Naama, an actor in New York a
  son, Akiva, who is a filmmaker in California and
  two grandchildren.

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Setting of the Novel

• The Chosen is set in Brooklyn, New York during
  the 1940s.
• WWII has been raging since 1939. The US,
  following the bombing of its naval base in Pearl
  Harbor, had already been drawn into the war.
• Most Americans, including the deeply religious
  Jews who lived in a somewhat isolated manner in
  Brooklyn, were in some way affected by the war
  effort.

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• Brooklyn is one of New York Citys five boroughs,
  or sections. It is home to more than two million
  people.
• The borough of Brooklyn is characterized by long
  blocks of row houses and tree-lined streets.

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• In the middle of Brooklyn is Prospect Park, which
  is designed so that its features look bigger than
  they really are.
• Coney Island, whose beaches are still popular
  with New Yorkers in the summer, is located at the
  southern end of Brooklyn.

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• Many Jewish immigrants came to Brooklyn in the
  1880s to escape persecution in Germany and
  eastern Europe. They founded enduring
  communities such as Williamsburg, where The
  Chosen is set.
• Many of the Jews living in Williamsburg are
  Hasidic.
• On Friday evenings,
  large groups of Hasidim
  clothed in
  black
  overcoats and fur-
  trimmed hats make
  their
  way to the
  synagogues off
  Bedford Avenue.

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Hasidism in the novel

• Hasidic leaders, called Tzaddiks, gained great
  power over their people a power they then
  passed on to their sons.
• Reb Saunderss character in The Chosen is based
  on the image of such a leader.
• Today, Hasidic men dress as did their Hasidic
  ancestors in eastern Europe.
• Many Hasidim also speak Yiddish, a folk language
  that evolved in eastern Europe.

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WWII and the novel

• The invasion of Europe, which Rueven and others
  follow so carefully, was a huge operation.
• An enormous military force gathered in
  Englandincluding American, Canadian, and
  British soldiers.
• The Germans had some idea that an Allied invasion
  was coming and built a wall of protection and
  defensive artillery along the French coast

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Invasion of Normandy
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Invasion of Normandy D Day
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• The invasion, which took place on June 6, 1944,
  was a combined air and sea assault on five
  different beaches in Normandy, France. While the
  battles were incredibly costly, the Allies
  succeeded. Theis operation was named Operation
  Overlord but is commonly called D day. It marked
  the beginning of the end of World War II.

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So now you know

• Over the years, different branches of Judaism
  have emerged.
• These branches include the Orthodox and the
  Conservative Jews.
• Hasidism is a division of the Orthodox branch.
• Conservatism combines modern culture with
  traditional Jewish observances.
• Potok writes about two boys, one Hasidic and one
  conservative, who become friends in spite of
  their differences.

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But did you know

• Judaism is one of the oldest of the worlds
  religions.
• Judaism has much in common with the religions
  that grew out of it Islam and Christianity. All
  three faiths teach that God is a guide and
  ultimately a judge. All three faiths have a day
  of rest and worship, which for Jews is from
  sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

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• Three texts are considered holy in the Jewish
  tradition the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and the
  Talmud.
• Christians refer to the Hebrew Bible as the Old
  Testament.
• Except in Israel, where Hebrew is the main
  language, most modern Jews speak the language of
  the nation where they live.