{"id":2933,"date":"2019-01-22T19:03:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T19:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2024-06-04T18:32:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T18:32:05","slug":"chaim-potok-out-of-the-depths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2019\/01\/22\/chaim-potok-out-of-the-depths\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaim Potok, Out of the Depths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaim Potok, Out of the Depths<\/h2>\n
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The cast of Habima’s 1922’s production of ‘The Dybbuk,’ the national theater’s third production. Credit: Limor Edray \/ Reproduction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOut of the Depths\u201d by Chaim\u00a0Potok\u00a0is a play about memory. It\u2019s a play about reconciling cultures, how they might co-exist within\u00a0ourselves\u00a0and outside of ourselves at the same time. It\u2019s a play about another play, which\u00a0in itself is\u00a0a play about love and longing and death. It\u2019s a play about a\u00a0writer, S.\u00a0Ansky<\/a>. It\u2019s also a play about another\u00a0writer, Chaim\u00a0Potok.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>\u201cOut of the Depths\u201d came to be when noted director John Hirsch asked Chaim to speak to his students at Yale about\u00a0Ansky\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Dybbuk.<\/a>\u201d He spoke for two hours on a cold morning in 1988, about how a secular literary man like\u00a0Ansky, an\u00a0intellectual and a revolutionary, became interested in and was inspired by the preservation of vanishing Jewish folklore.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Jewish folklore,\u00a0Ansky\u00a0found, according to Director David Bassuk, \u201cjoy, friendship, and a connection to people that had eluded\u00a0him all his life.\u201d The tale of the dybbuk, and the play he crafted from the legend, \u201cbecame a meditation revealing profound themes of Jewish life, emotional separation, and physical longing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These themes equally resonate in Chaim\u2019s\u00a0depiction of\u00a0Ansky\u00a0himself, as\u00a0Chaim\u00a0was deeply interested in the interconnectedness of\u00a0Ansky\u2019s\u00a0religious upbringing and his chosen secular lifestyle. To\u00a0Chaim, this clash of cultures, both familiar and foreign, are defined in what his daughter, Rena\u00a0Potok, calls one\u00a0of\u00a0his major teachings: \u201cthat there is no such thing as a single, absolute truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chaim had been a U.S. chaplain in the Army, stationed in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. There, he encountered next to no Jews, and no antisemitism, but was transformed by his encounters witnessing other religious believers who matched in fervor and devotion the Orthodoxy he\u2019d grown up with, in an Orthodox Jewish home in New York. In Chaim\u2019s view, according to Rena, \u201cmultiple truths\u201d exists, and that \u201ccultural identity and experience are malleable and mutually informing: the more open we are to\u00a0confronting, or fusing with another culture,\u00a0the more we grow as individuals, artists, and intellectuals.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cOut of the Depths,\u201d S.\u00a0Ansky\u00a0must confront his Jewish history, and the stories of his ancestors he\u2019d once scorned, in order to create a beautiful piece of art, \u201cThe Dybbuk.\u201d In doing so, he was able to fuse the religious and the secular, in order, as written by Chaim, to return to Judaism \u201con [his] own terms.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The New York premiere of a staged reading of \u201cOut of the Depths\u201d will be performed at the Center for Jewish History on February 3<\/a>. Directed by\u00a0David Bassuk<\/b>\u00a0and introduced by\u00a0Rena\u00a0<\/b>Potok<\/b>, the performance celebrates the publication of\u00a0The Collected Plays of Chaim\u00a0<\/i>Potok<\/i><\/a>, edited by Rena\u00a0Potok. A book signing follows the program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Join @centerforjewishhistory and @jdforward on Feb 3 for the NYC Premiere Staged Reading of \u201cOut of the Depths\u201d by acclaimed writer Chaim Potok. Set against the backdrop of war and revolution, this beautiful play tells the story of S. Ansky, legendary Jewish author and playwright, as he grappled with defining his own sense of identity while writing one of his most famous works, \u201cThe Dybbuk.\u201d Directed by David Bassuk, with an introduction by Rena Potok. Tickets on sale at potok.bpt.me!<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by Center for Jewish History<\/a> (@centerforjewishhistory) on