Chaim Potok

Chaim Potok ( February 17 , 1929 - July 23 , 2002 ) was an American author and rabbi . Herman Harold Potok was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Poland . Following tradition, his parents, Benjamin Max (d. 1958) and Mollie (Friedman) Potok (d.1985), gave him a Hebrew name, Chaim Tvzi; "Chaim" is the Hebrew word for "life"."Tvzi" means "Deer." His Orthodox education taught him Talmud as well as secular studies. He decided to become a writer as a teenager, after reading Evelyn Waugh 's Brideshead Revisited . In 1950, he obtained an B.A. , summa cum laude , in English Literature from Yeshiva University . After receiving an M.A. in Hebrew literature , and his later rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America , Potok joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain, where he spent over a year (1955-1957) in the Korean War . On June 8, 1958, he married Adena Sara Mosevitzsky, a psychiatric social worker, who he met in 1952 at Camp Ramah in the Poconos . They have three children: Rena, Naama, and Akiva. From 1964-1975, Potok edited Conservative Judaism and also served as editor, from 1965-1974, of the Jewish Publication Society. In 1965, Potok was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania . Potok is most famous for his 1967 novel The Chosen , which was also made into a film released in 1981 , which won top award at the World Film Festival, Montreal, and later became a musical on Broadway for a short time. It was a semi-autobiographical story about two boys. Reuven Malter, a Modern Orthodox Jew , becomes friends with Danny Saunders, an exceptionally brilliant young son of a Hasidic rabbi. The father, Reb Saunders, expects his son to succeed him as a rabbi, yet Danny wants to study psychology , a secular field of study. He died of cancer in Merion, Pennsylvania , on July 23 , 2002 .¹