His characters thought about modernity and wrestled with the core-to-core cultural confrontations they experienced when modernity clashed with faith. With a plain, straightforward style, his novels were set against the moral, spiritual, and intellectual currents of the twentieth century. Read moreĬhaim Potok was a world-class writer and scholar, a Conservative Jew who wrote from and about his tradition and the conflicts between observance and acculturation.

Marovitz, Kathryn McClymond, Hugh Nissenson, Adena Potok, and Jonathan Rosen. Devir, Jane Eisner, Susanne Klingenstein, S. The volume includes a memoir by Adena Potok and ends with Chaim Potok’s “My Life as a Writer,” a speech he gave at Penn State in 1982.Īside from the editor, the contributors are Victoria Aarons, Nathan P. The essays illuminate the central struggle in Potok’s novels, which results from a profound desire to reconcile the appeal of modernity with the pull of traditional Judaism. This collection aims to widen the lens through which we read Chaim Potok and to establish him as an authentic American writer who created unforgettable characters forging American identities for themselves while retaining their Jewish nature. Chaim Potok was a world-class writer and scholar, a Conservative Jew who wrote from and about his tradition and the conflicts between observance and acculturation.

Chaim potok paintings