Potok opens The Chosen by describing the setting and cultural background in which the novel takes place—an area in New York City called Williamsburg, which is heavily populated by Jews. Ironically, the streets of Williamsburg are not paved with gold, as alluded to in the mythical image of America; rather, they’re paved with asphalt riddled with potholes. Even the sidewalks are “cracked squares of cement.” This description reveals something about the social realities of many immigrant Jews, who came to America seeking economic opportunity but often struggled to make ends meet in their new country.
Culturally, the Jews are divided between ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews and Modern Orthodox Jews. For example, although all male Orthodox children attend yeshivas, some yeshivas (including Reuven Malter’s) teach more English subjects than other yeshivas do (including Danny Saunders’). Language also separates the different Orthodox Jews: Reuven learns about Jewish subjects in Hebrew; Danny learns these subjects in Yiddish. By mentioning this language difference, Potok introduces the importance that lan-guage—or, in Danny’s case, silence—plays in the novel.
Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter represent these two Orthodox Jewish sects: Hasidic Jews and Modern Orthodox Jews, respectively. Potok establishes the boys’ religious rivalry by having each as the leader of his softball team. Interestingly, no matter what their religious differences, they can find common ground in the very American game of softball. Note that the boys’ yeshivas introduced softball to the students as a way to demonstrate American patriotism: World War II is underway at the beginning of the novel. Reuven narrates the newfound importance placed on appearing American: “[T]o be counted a loyal American had become increasingly important to us these last years of the war.”
In bringing Danny and Reuven before us, Potok sets the stage for their later religious and secular dialogues, in which the boys oftentimes differ over issues. Their different outlooks on life are symbolized in their manner of dress. Because Reuven and Danny are Orthodox Jews, they wear small, black skullcaps. However, the skullcap is the only outward similarity between their garments. All the boys on Danny’s team wear the same outfits; Reuven and his team members have no set uniform.
In addition to their personal rivalry, Reuven and Danny represent their respective fathers, David Malter and Rabbi Isaac Saunders, who is introduced later in the novel, and their fathers’ differing religious views. Reuven tells us that his father “had no love at all for Hasidic communities and their rabbinic overlords,” of which Danny’s father is one. Danny, speaking to Reuven at second base, asks, “Your father is David Malter, the one who writes articles on the Talmud?” When Reuven confirms that David Malter is his father, Danny promises that his team will “kill you apikorsim,” a word originally used to describe a Jew who denied basic tenets of Judaism. That Reuven is struck by a ball off Danny’s bat at the end of Chapter 1 is symbolic of their—and their fathers’— ideological battles.
Although The Chosen focuses on Danny Saunders’ struggle to stand up to his father and renounce the leadership position that tradition dictates Danny inherit, Chapter 1 establishes Reuven’s own personal struggle to accept Danny and the Hasidic religion that Danny and his father represent. Although Reuven would like to believe that he is more open-minded than Danny, he admits that he has never before had “personal contact” with members of Danny’s religious sect. However, he has accepted his own father’s critical views concerning Rabbi Saunders’ “fanatic sense of righteousness.” Reuven, like Danny, must first learn to think for himself and then form his own opinions rather than blindly accepting someone else’s. His father, Danny, and Danny’s father will help Reuven accomplish this growth.
