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THE CHOSEN

Novel by Chaim Potok, 1967

Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen takes place in New York City, with World War II and the Holocaust a constant presence as two boys from different Jewish traditions meet and are transformed by one another. The novel is organized into three books. The first book establishes the war as a background and presents the central theme as Reuven Malter's father asks him to choose Danny Saunders as his friend, a choice that is to have consequences for both boys. The second book focuses on the boys' growing friendship, the end of the war, a realization that six million Jews have been murdered, and the first calls for a Jewish homeland. The third book immerses the boys in the aftermath of the war, both the internal war between Jewish sects—Reuven's father is a Zionist, and Danny's father, the tzaddik for his Hasidic community, is totally opposed to a homeland—and Reuven's own battle with hatred for the choice Reb Saunders made in using silence to raise his son Danny.

War is clearly a central theme in The Chosen. As the two boys from different Jewish traditions meet in a hate-filled battle on the baseball diamond, the world, too, is at war. David Malter asks Reuven to be aware of a world that is larger than his anger at Danny: "It is expected Rome will fall any day now. And there are rumors the invasion of Europe will be very soon. You should not forget there is a world outside." The war and Hitler provide a backdrop for the boys' lives in the Bronx: "The millions of soldiers fighting Hitler are part of the world," and as Danny tells Reuven of wanting to read Freud in German, he must defend his decision: "Just because Hitler speaks German doesn't mean that the language is corrupt." As the war escalates, it takes on a greater presence in the novel: "And then the news of the war in Europe suddenly reached a peak of feverish excitement." Reuven notes that even Danny's father mentions the war: "It is the end of Hitler, may his name and memory be erased." And finally news of the Holocaust reaches the boys: "there came the news, at first somewhat guarded, then, a few days later, clear and outspoken, of the German concentration camps." Reuven struggles with this reality: "I just couldn't grasp it. The numbers of Jews slaughtered had gone from one million to three million to four million, and almost every article we read said that the last count was still incomplete, the final number would probably reach six. I couldn't begin to imagine six million of my people murdered. I lay in my bed and asked myself what sense it made. It didn't make any sense at all."

The question of the "sense" of the world is a central theme in The Chosen. It is introduced early by Mr. Savo, a character in the eye ward at Brooklyn Memorial, and Potok turns again and again to the phrase "Crazy world. Cockeyed." When Danny contemplates how he and Reuven are so different, he echoes Mr. Savo: "'It's funny,' he said. 'It's really funny. I have to be a rabbi and don't want to be one. You don't have to be a rabbi and do want to be one. It's a crazy world."' Reuven's father is also deeply affected by the insanity of the world as he considers the Holocaust: "Did we know, he asked us, that on December 17, 1942, Mr. Eden got up in the House of Commons and gave the complete details of the Nazi plan … and not a thing was done … No one had cared enough. The world closed its doors, and six million Jews were slaughtered. What a world! What an insane world!"

In the midst of this insanity choices are all-important. Reuven is asked to "choose" Danny as his friend: "Reuven, if you can, make Danny Saunders your friend." He is asked to understand his father's passion for Zionism, the importance of giving loss meaning: "Six million of our people have been slaughtered … It will have meaning only if we give it meaning … We have a terrible responsibility … If we do not rebuild Jewry in America, we will die as a people." Reuven is asked to understand his father's drive, to accept his father's mortality. "A span of life is nothing," David Malter tells his son, "But the man who lives that span, he is something … 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 … A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here." And ultimately Reuven must come to understand Reb Saunders's choice to use silence in the raising of his son Danny, a painful choice but one made to save him: "A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer, and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul! … I had to make certain his soul would be the soul of a tzaddik no matter what he did with his life." Reuven's understanding of this choice, his acceptance of a culture other than his own, is at the heart of the novel.

This story of two Jewish boys growing to adulthood in the shadow of the Holocaust is ultimately a story of choosing to love, of choosing to serve others with love. Potok tells the story in a way that gives meaning to the suffering; he tells a story in which understanding provides hope for the future.