‘Deeds not words’ may seem a mere shibboleth until it as taken as seriously as it is by the Hasidim for whom even the smallest and apparently trivial human act - entering a room, switching on a light, greeting one’s spouse or parents - has cosmic significance. How one acts, one’s ethical impact on the world, describes everything that is relevant about a person. This is the central theme of Potok’s book and, in a sense, it is the essence of Judaism. “What a person does is what he is,” says the father of Asher Lev. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002, aged 73. After the publication of Old Men at Midnight, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. In 1970, Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee. He became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1963, he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel.
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. 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. 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. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.Īfter receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S.
In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.Īfter four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. Herman Harold Potok, or Chaim Tzvi, was born in Buffalo, New York, to Polish immigrants.
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