The Chosen, My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The Book of Lights :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Assimilation and the American Jew in Potoks The chosen, My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The Book of Lights. America has always been a country of immigrants, since it was first settled by Europeans over five ampere-second years ago. Like any country with a considerable immigrant population, American has always faced the problem of assimilation. Because America was founded and settled by immigrants, her market-gardening is a combination of the cultures of other countries. Should these immigrants isolate themselves from the main(prenominal)stream American culture, or should they break the culture of their homelands for the benefits American culture has to offer? Judaism in particular has had to process with the assimilation question. One of the beings oldest religions, it has remained strong over its half a dozen thousand year history by remaining distinct and separate from other cultures. Chaim Potok focuses on how Orthodox and Hasidic Jews have handled this pro blem in his books The Chosen, My name is Asher Lev, In the Beginning, and The Book of Lights. Many of Chaim Potoks characters want the American Jewry to remain isolated from the mainstream American culture The world kills us The world flays our skin from our bodies and throws us into the flames The world laughs at Torah And if it does not kill us, it tempts us It misleads us It contaminates us It asks us to join in its ugliness, its abominations (The Chosen 127) The Chosen deals with the problems Jews have faced in trying to preserve their heritage in particular, the problem of how to deal with the danger of assimilation (Young). The Jews have always been professionals occupying jobs in medicine, law, education, and other fields requiring a college degree. American Jews, however, face a quandary Ideas from this secular world inevitably impinge upon an individual born in a church community or a synagogue community, specially when that individual embarks on a college experience (Po tok 2). American Jews must both take on nonprofessional jobs, assuming an identity completely disparate from that of European Jews, or expose themselves to secular America. Isolation is thoroughly meshuggeneh for the American Jew. Chaim Potoks works often focus on main characters whose talents draw them to the outside world When individuals are brought up in the bosom of such a community or culture as Dannys and Reuvens did in The Chosen they learn to commit themselves to its values They see the world through and through the system of values of that unique community.