Chaim Potok

Herman Harold Potok was born in Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Poland.

He was the oldest of four children, all of whom either became or married rabbis. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer.

In 1967 Potok published The Chosen, which won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was nominated for the National Book Award.

The Chosen was made into a film released in 1981, which won the most prestigious award at the World Film Festival, Montreal.

His work was significant for discussing the conflict between the traditional aspects of Jewish thought and culture and modernity to a wider, non-Jewish culture.

 He taught a highly regarded graduate seminar on Postmodernism at the University of Pennsylvania from 1993 through 2001.