Chaim Potok (Author of The Chosen)

Chaim Potok鈥檚 Followers (1,796)

Chaim Potok

Born

in Buffalo, New York, The United States

February 17, 1929

Died

July 23, 2002

Website

Genre

Fiction, Religion, Philosophy

Influences

James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ernest Hemingway, SY Agno ...more

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Herman Harold Potok, or Chaim Tzvi, was born in Buffalo, New York, to Polish immigrants. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.

In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.

After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative Herman Harold Potok, or Chaim Tzvi, was born in Buffalo, New York, to Polish immigrants. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.

In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.

After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.

After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He described his time in S. Korea as a transformative experience. Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home.

Upon his return, he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of a Conservative Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement, Camp Ramah. A year later he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Temple Har Zion in Philadelphia.

In 1963, he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel.

In 1964 Potok moved to Brooklyn. He became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers鈥� Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee. Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1970, Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. He returned to Philadelphia in 1977. After the publication of Old Men at Midnight, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002, aged 73. ...more

Combine Editions
Chaim Potok鈥檚 books

Average rating: 4.12 · 185,277 ratings · 11,917 reviews · 66 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	The Chosen (Reuven Malther, #1) 4.07 avg rating — 96,090 ratings — published 1966 — 166 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Name Is Asher Lev 4.24 avg rating — 42,811 ratings — published 1972 — 97 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Promise (Reuven Malther, #2) 4.19 avg rating — 14,014 ratings — published 1969 — 68 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Gift of Asher Lev 4.19 avg rating — 8,442 ratings — published 1990 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Davita's Harp 4.04 avg rating — 6,553 ratings — published 1985 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In the Beginning 4.13 avg rating — 3,039 ratings — published 1975 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	...I Never Saw Another Butterfly... by Chaim Potok (Foreword), V谩clav Havel (Afterword), United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Contributor) 4.37 avg rating — 2,737 ratings — published 1959 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Lights 3.90 avg rating — 2,530 ratings — published 1981 — 29 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Am the Clay 3.63 avg rating — 1,775 ratings — published 1992 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Old Men at Midnight: Stories 3.63 avg rating — 1,425 ratings — published 2001 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Chaim Potok…

Series by Chaim Potok

Reuven Malther (2 books)
by

Chaim Potok

4.09 avg rating — 110,104 ratings

Asher Lev (2 books)
by

Chaim Potok

4.23 avg rating — 51,253 ratings

Quotes by Chaim Potok (?)

“I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”
― Chaim Potok, The Chosen

tags: silence

2400 likes

“Human beings do not live forever, Reuven. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?

I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.

It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here.”
― Chaim Potok, The Chosen

tags: literature

414 likes

“鈥verything has a past. Everything 鈥� a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don鈥檛 know the past, you can鈥檛 understand the present and plan properly for the future.”
― Chaim Potok, Davita's Harp

tags: chaim, davita, harp, past, planning, potok, understand

247 likes

See all Chaim Potok's quotes »

Polls

October 2024 New School Classics Group Read

A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie, 1950, 288 pages

82 votes, 36.3%

The Chosen by Chaim Potok, 1967, 271 pages

36 votes, 15.9%

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, 1947, 423 pages

29 votes, 12.8%

The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen, 1948, 415 pages

20 votes, 8.8%

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, 1932, 363 pages

19 votes, 8.4%

The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov, 1980, 368 pages

16 votes, 7.1%

The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, 1953, 326 pages

12 votes, 5.3%

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, 1959, 350 pages

12 votes, 5.3%

226 total votes

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