Chaim Potok facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chaim Potok
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Potok in 1986
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| Born | Herman Harold Potok February 17, 1929 Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 23, 2002 (aged 73) Merion, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, Rabbi, Painter |
| Education | Yeshiva University (BA) |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Spouse | Adena Potok |
| Children | Rena Potok Naama Potok Akiva Potok |
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Chaim Potok (born February 17, 1929 – died July 23, 2002) was an American writer. He wrote many novels, plays, and edited books. He was also a rabbi, which is a Jewish religious leader. His first book, The Chosen (published in 1967), was very popular. It was on The New York Times bestseller list for 39 weeks. Over 3.4 million copies were sold. Later, it was even made into a movie in 1981.
Contents
About Chaim Potok
Early Life and Education
Chaim Potok was born Herman Harold Potok in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Benjamin and Mollie Potok, were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Chaim was the oldest of four children. All of his siblings either became rabbis or married rabbis. His Hebrew name was Chaim Tzvi.
He grew up with an Orthodox Jewish education. When he was a teenager, he read a novel called Brideshead Revisited. This book made him want to become a writer. He started writing stories when he was 16. At 17, he sent a story to The Atlantic Monthly magazine. It wasn't published, but the editor sent him a nice note. He went to high school at Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy. This was a boys' high school connected to Yeshiva University.
In 1949, when he was 20, his stories appeared in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University. He also helped edit this magazine. In 1950, Potok finished his studies at Yeshiva University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature with very high honors.
Becoming a Rabbi and Chaplain
After studying for four years at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Chaim Potok became a Conservative rabbi. He then became the director of LTF, a youth group for young Jewish leaders.
Potok earned a master's degree in English literature. After that, he joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain. A chaplain is a religious leader who serves in the military. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. This time in Korea changed his view of the world. He had grown up believing that Jewish people were central to history. But in Korea, he saw very few Jewish people. He also saw people of other religions praying with deep faith.
Family and Later Life
When he returned to the U.S., he taught at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. Potok met Adena Sara Mosevitzsky at Camp Ramah in California. She was a social worker. They got married on June 8, 1958.
In 1959, he started studying at the University of Pennsylvania. He also worked at Har Zion Synagogue in Philadelphia. In 1963, the Potoks taught at Camp Ramah in Nyack. That same year, he spent a year in Israel. There, he worked on his doctoral paper and started writing a novel.
In 1964, the Potoks moved to Brooklyn. Chaim became the managing editor of Conservative Judaism magazine. He also taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The next year, he became the editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia. He later became the chairman of their publication committee. During this time, Potok earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1970, the Potoks moved to Jerusalem, Israel. They returned to Philadelphia in 1977.
Chaim Potok was diagnosed with brain cancer after his book Old Men at Midnight was published. He passed away at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania, on July 23, 2002. He was 73 years old.
Chaim Potok's Books
Famous Novels
In 1967, Potok published The Chosen. This book won an award and was nominated for the National Book Award. In 1969, he wrote a second book called The Promise. This book continued the story from The Chosen. It explored the differences between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. This book also won an award.
In 1972, he published My Name is Asher Lev. This story is about a boy who loves art. He struggles with his parents and his religion because of his desire to be an artist. In 1975, he published In the Beginning.
From 1974 until he died, Potok worked as a special editor for the Jewish Publication Society. During this time, he also started translating the Hebrew Bible into English. In 1978, he published a non-fiction book called Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s Story of the Jews. This book was a history of the Jewish people.
His 1981 novel The Book of Lights was about his experiences in Asia during the war. He said this experience "reshaped the neat, coherent model of myself and my place in the world."
Books to Film and Stage
His novel The Chosen was made into a movie in 1981. The film won a major award at the World Film Festival in Montreal, Canada. Potok even had a small acting part in the movie as a professor. Famous actors like Rod Steiger and Maximilian Schell were in the film. The Chosen was also turned into a musical and a stage play. The play first opened in Philadelphia in 1999.
Potok's 1985 novel Davita's Harp is special because it's his only book with a girl as the main character. In 1990, he published The Gift of Asher Lev, which was a sequel to My Name is Asher Lev. This book won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.
Chaim Potok also wrote many plays. Some of them were Sins of The Father and Out of The Depths. In 1992, he finished another novel called I am the Clay. This book was about a family struggling after a war. He also wrote books for young adults, like The Tree of Here (1993) and The Sky of Now (1995). His book Zebra and Other Stories came out in 1998.
Literary Influences
Chaim Potok's parents did not want him to read or write about non-Jewish topics. But he spent many hours at the public library reading other kinds of novels. Potok said that writers like James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ernest Hemingway, and S. Y. Agnon were his main inspirations.
Many of his novels are set in the cities of New York. This is where he grew up. Even though he was not Hasidic, Potok was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home. In his book My Name is Asher Lev, the character Asher Lev wants to be a painter. This causes a lot of conflict with his father. His father wants him to do something else. This was similar to what Chaim Potok experienced in his own childhood. Asher decides to become a painter, which upsets his family. Potok himself became a writer and painted in his free time. Potok said he felt a strong connection to Asher Lev, more than any of his other characters.
Legacy
Chaim Potok had a big impact on Jewish American writers. His books were important because they talked about the challenges between traditional Jewish ideas and modern life. He helped a wider audience, including non-Jewish people, understand these topics. From 1993 to 2001, he taught a popular class at the University of Pennsylvania about Postmodernism.
He gave his writings and papers to the University of Pennsylvania. The university now has a collection of his letters, writings, speeches, and fan mail. One of his fans was Elie Wiesel, a famous writer. Wiesel wrote to Potok, saying he had read all his books "with fervor and friendship."
Published Works
- Jewish Ethics (1964–69, 14 volumes)
- The Chosen (1967)
- The Promise (1969)
- My Name Is Asher Lev (1972)
- In the Beginning (1975)
- The Jew Confronts Himself in American Literature (1975)
- Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews (1978)
- The Book of Lights (1981)
- Davita's Harp (1985)
- Theo Tobiasse (1986)
- The Gift of Asher Lev (1990)
- I Am the Clay (1992)
- The Tree of Here (1993)
- The Trope Teacher (1994)
- The Sky of Now (1994)
- The Gates of November (1996)
- Zebra and Other Stories (1998)
- Isaac Stern: My First 79 Years (with Isaac Stern; 1999)
- Old Men at Midnight (2001)
See also
- List of brain tumor patients
