(Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, 1967)
This novel is about two Jewish teenagers growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, during and after the Second World War.
Both are studying to become rabbis. Reuven Malter is the son of a yeshiva teacher with modernist, "heretical" views on Judaism. Danny Saunders is the son of a Polish hasidic rebbe who fled the Shoah and brought his followers to America. The boys struggle against each other's destiny but eventually help one another choose a life path of service.
The book provides memorable insight into the conflictions of American Jewish realities and Holocaust-era European Hasidism. Potok's portrayals of pilpul sessions on Shabbat afternoon or Talmud discussions in school or simply playing baseball on summer asphalt are more vivid than any Spielberg movie.
One theme of the book is expressed in this brief dialogue between Reuven and Danny:
"My father doesn't write," Danny said. "He reads a lot, but he never writes. He says that words distort what a person really feels in his heart. He doesn't like to talk too much, either. Oh, he talks plenty when we're studying Talmud together. But otherwise he doesn't say much. He told me once he wishes everyone could talk in silence."Later in the story, Reuven is telling his father about a painful ordeal Danny went through in the synagogue headed by his father, Reb Saunders. The father had tested his son's knowledge of Talmud by grilling him before the men of the congregation. The purpose, in part, is to train Danny to take over as the head of this Hasidic dynasty."Talk in silence?"
"I don't understand it, either," Danny said, shrugging. "But that's what he said." (chap. 3, p. 72)
"It was an experience, abba. The way Danny had to answer his father's questions like that in front of everybody. I thought that was terrible."My father shook his head. "It is not terrible, Reuven. . . . It is an old tradition, this kind of Talmudic discussion. I have seen it many times, between great rabbis. . . . It is part of Danny's training."
"But in public like that, abba!"
"Yes, Reuven. In public like that. How else would Reb Saunders' people know that Danny has a head for Talmud?"
"It just seemed so cruel to me."
My father nodded. "It is a little cruel, Reuven. But that is the way the world is. If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public." (chap. 7, p. 140)
Danny does not want to secede his father. He wants to become a psychologist; an act of betrayal in the eyes of his father. This tension is a major theme of the book. Ironically, it is Reuven who helps Reb Saunders accept the "loss" of his son. In the end, his father relents control, accepting Danny's promise to remain loyal to Torah. After high school, Danny enters college and Reuven enters seminary to become a rabbi.
In the dark sequel, The Promise (1969), Danny's graduate training in psychology is tested severely by the deep problems of an adolescent boy who is a cousin to Reuven's girlfriend.
A film version of The Chosen came out in 1981, starring Robby Benson as Danny.
Chaim Potok (1929—2002) was born Herman Harold Potok in Brooklyn, New York, to a deeply religious Jewish immigrant family from Poland, which had strong ties to Hasidism. He wanted to be a painter but his father said painting was a gentile occupation, so he turned to writing. His book My Name is Asher Lev reflects his passion for art. The two authors who inspired him to start writing were Evelyn Waugh and James Joyce, both "Christians." He graduated from Yeshiva University in 1950 with a BA in English Literature. After four years, he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as a Conservative Rabbi. After further studies in Hebrew literature and rabbinic ordination, he joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain and served in the Korean War. He died of cancer in July 2002 at age 73.
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