THE CHOSEN Teacher Information Packet

A C L A S S I C A M E R I C A N C O M I N G - O F - A G E S T O RY

TEACHER INFO PACKET

2017-18 SEASON

gordon edelstein artistic director

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JOS HUA BORE NS T E IN managing director

aaron posner & chaim potok FROM the novel by chaim potok DIRECTED BY GORDON EDELSTEIN

adapted bY

NOVEMBER 22 – DECEMBER 17, 2017 CLAIRE TOW STAGE IN THE C.NEWTON SCHENCK III THEATRE

Teacher Information Packet Compiled and Written by: madelyn ardito Director of Education eliza orleans Education Programs Manager christine scarfuto Literary Manager & Dramaturg TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET LAYOUT BY CLAIRE ZOGHB

L O N G W H A R F T H E AT R E G R A T E F U L LY A C K N O W L E D G E S THE GENEROSITY OF OUR E D U C AT I O N S U P P O R T E R S ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST ELIZABETH CARSE FOUNDATION FREDERCIK A. D e LUCA FOUNDATION THE GEORGE A. & GRACE L. LONG FOUNDATION SEYMOUR L. LUSTMAN MEMORIAL FUND SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION THEATRE FORWARD WELLS FARGO FOUNDATION

FOR THE FIRST-TIME THEATREGOER the major consideration to keep in mind is that your actions can be distracting not only to the rest of the audience, but to the actors on stage as well. Behavior that is acceptable in other public settings, like movie theatres, ballgames, or concerts, is out of place when attending the theatre.

The following tips should help you get acquainted with some DOs and DON’Ts for first-time theatregoers.

DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra: To be EARLY is to be ON TIME. To be ON TIME is to be LATE. To be LATE is UNFORGIVABLE.

DO turn off your cell phone. Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. Texting during a performance is also rude. The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

DON’T leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. If it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.

DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. You can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. Also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. Don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.

DON’T talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you. Everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.

DO get into it! Actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. Don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. However, there is a line that can be crossed. Please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. After all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. Just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.

contents ABOUT THE PLAY 8 Synopsis

10 Setting

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Characters

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About the Author

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About the Playwright

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY 19

Glossary

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Historical Context

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Understanding Gematria

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

Look for this symbol to find discussion and writing prompts, discussion questions and classroom activities!

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What Jewish Children Learned from Charlottesville

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Additional Resources

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READ a Review—Then WRITE Your Own!

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Sources

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Moments & Minutes Festival

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August Wilson Monologue Competition

ABOUT THE PLAY

SYNOPSIS:

What is the play about?

The Chosen is about maintaining friendship and faith in the face of difference. The play is based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Chaim Potok.

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he year is 1944. World War II is raging on, and the entire country is on edge. Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders are two teenage boys who live in the same Brooklyn, New York neighborhood but lead vastly different lives. Reuven is an Orthodox Jew, popular in his community, and particularly skilled at math. He lives with his father, David Malter, a scholar and teacher. Although his father would like for him to become a mathematician when he’s older, Reuven has aspirations to become a rabbi. Danny comes from a very different family. He is a Hasidic Jew, meaning that his entire life is dictated by Jewish law. He dresses, prays, studies, and eats in the ways that are mandated by the Talmud, a collection of historical Jewish writings.

Danny’s father, Reb Saunders, is a Hasidic rabbi and leader of a large congregation. Danny is the next in line to assume his father’s duties and become a tzaddik, or spiritual leader. Danny, however, is much more interested in studying psychology.

Reuven and Danny meet at a baseball game, when Danny hits a ball into Reuven’s eye. When Reuven is sent to the hospital to recover, Danny visits, and the two realize how much they actually have in common. They begin to form a friendship with each other and with each other’s fathers.

It becomes clear that while Reuven and his father are very close, the relationship that Danny has with his father, Reb Saunders, is strained, complicated, and very foreign to Reuven.

As Reuven and Danny both grow older, the world outside of Brooklyn is getting increasingly complicated. Jews all over the world are lobbying for the establishment of a Jewish state, one that will be called Israel. Reuven and his father both identify with this movement (Zionism) and believe that, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Jewish people need a homeland where they can be safe and celebrated. Danny and his father, on the other hand, do not believe in a Jewish state. They believe that this goes against God’s will and that the Jewish people need to wait for the Messiah to come as the ancient religious texts instruct.

Can Reuven and Danny maintain a friendship in the face of such stark differences? And will they individually be able to pursue their own dreams rather than those set for them by their fathers?

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In the Classroom ACTIVITY: One of the central themes of The Chosen is the relationship between fathers and sons. Reuven and Danny both envision futures for themselves that are at odds with the ideals of their respective fathers.

Consider your relationship with a parent, grandparent, or other family member.

Answer the following questions:

Parents

By William Meredith What it must be like to be an angel or a squirrel, we can imagine sooner.

The last time we go to bed good, they are there, lying about darkness.

They dandle us once too often, these friends who become our enemies.

What images do you associate with this person?

Suddenly one day, their juniors are as old as we yearn to be.

When you think about this person, what sounds do you hear?

They get wrinkles where it is better smooth, odd coughs, and smells.

How do you feel when you are around this person?

It is grotesque how they go on loving us, we go on loving them

Does this person comfort you or challenge you?

The effrontery, barely imaginable, of having caused us. And of how.

What is your most recent memory of this person?

Their lives: surely we can do better than that.

This goes on for a long time. Everything they do is wrong, and the worst thing,

Use your responses to write a poem or monologue about this relationship. Here is an example to get your thoughts rolling!

they all do it, is to die, taking with them the last explanation, how we came out of the wet sea or wherever they got us from, taking the last link of that chain with them.

Father, mother, we cry, wrinkling, to our uncomprehending children and grandchildren.

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SETTING:

Where does the play take place?

The Chosen takes place in Brooklyn, New York, specifically an area called Williamsburg.

The play begins in 1944 when Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders are teenagers.

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CHARACTERS:

Who are the people in the play?

DAVID MALTER Reuven’s father, an Orthodox Jew, scholar, and teacher at the local yeshiva. David is a Zionist and profoundly supports the creation of a Jewish state. He is considered to be a heretic by the Hasidic Jewish community.

REUVEN MALTER A Modern Orthodox Jew who has a gift for mathematics and logic. He is smart, curious, and popular in his community. Although his father would like him to be a professional mathematician, Reuven desires to become a rabbi.

REB SAUNDERS Danny’s father, a Hasidic Jew, a tzaddik, and a spiritual leader. Reb Saunders brought his congregation to America when Jews were being persecuted in their Russian homeland. Reb Saunders does not believe in Zionism because he believes that the creation of a Jewish state supersedes God’s will.

DANNY SAUNDERS A Hasidic Jew who has a photographic memory.

He is the son of a Rabbi and the next in line to become a tzaddik or religious leader. Danny feels trapped between his predetermined future and his true desires, which are to study Freudian theory and become a psychologist.

Carter Hudson and John Rothman (top) and Jonathan David Martin and David Margulies (right) in Portland Center Stage’s 2010 production of The Chosen. Photos by Owen Carey.

In the Classroom

DISCUSSION: In The Chosen, both Reuven and Danny have dreams for themselves that are radically different than what their fathers want. Do you think that children are destined to rebel against their parents’ wishes? Or is it possible for parents and children to want the same futures?

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about the author: Chaim Potok

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haim Potok was a novelist, rabbi, and scholar originally from Brooklyn, New York. He was born to Polish immigrants in 1929 and grew up raised him in an Orthodox Jewish household.

Growing up, Potok was primarily fascinated by two subjects: fiction and the Conservative Jewish movement, which was less restrictive than the Orthodox culture he had grown up with.

As a boy, Chaim displayed a gift for drawing and painting, and dreamed of becoming an artist. This did not find favor at home.

In the Orthodox tradition, the arts were disdained as narishkeit — Yiddish for ‘’foolishness’’ — which described any pastime that detracted from the study of Torah and Talmud.

Furthermore, visual art was a violation of the Second Commandment’s taboo against the making of graven images.

He turned instead to literature. …While his parents tolerated his interest — the written word, after all, was the foundation of Judaism — it was, they made clear, no fit vocation. ‘’You want to write stories?’’ Mr. Potok recalled his mother’s telling him. ‘’That’s very nice. You be a brain surgeon, and on the side you write stories.’’

– The New York Times, 2002.

He attended Yeshiva University and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English Literature before moving on to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a Conservative Rabbi. His decision to formally leave the Orthodox tradition created a rift between him and his family.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

continued

‘’When I left the parochial school system,’’ Mr. Potok said in a 1981 interview, ‘’I had to rebuild my world literally from zero. And to this day there are people from the old world who won’t speak to me.’’

Following a stint in the army, Potok went on to teach at several Jewish colleges in the late 1960s before eventually taking on the position of managing editor of Conservative Judaism. He spent a year in Israel working towards his dissertation and later earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.

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otok began his career as an author and novelist in 1967 with the publication of The Chosen, which stands as the first book from a major publisher to portray Orthodox Judaism in the United States. With its story about the friendship between the son of a Hasidic rabbi and a more secularly-minded Jewish boy in Brooklyn, The Chosen established Potok’s reputation. Critics praised the book for its vivid rendering of the closed Hasidic community, while many considered it to be an allegory about the survival of Judaism. Potok followed The Chosen with a sequel two years later called The Promise. He returned to the subject of Hasidism for a third time with the 1972 novel My Name is Asher Lev, the story of a young artist and his conflict with the traditions of his family and community. Potok followed this novel with a sequel, as well, publishing The Gift of Asher Lev eighteen years later in 1990.

Potok continued to examine the conflict between secular and religious interests in his other novels as well, including In the Beginning in 1975, The Book of Lights in 1981, and Davita›s Harp in 1985. He also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania in both the 1980s and 1990s, and taught briefly at Bryn Mawr College and Johns Hopkins University. He was a passionate lover of Israel, and lived there for several years. Potok was also very active in the Soviet Jewry movement.

Reviewing his career in 1992, Mr. Potok recalled that no one was more surprised than he by the wild success of The Chosen. ‘’I thought 500 people might be interested in reading this story about two Jewish kids,’’ he said.

Chaim Potok died July 23, 2002, at his suburban Philadelphia home of brain cancer at the age of 73.

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: Why do you think the novel/play is called The Chosen?

ACTIVITY: Chaim Potok used rifts between himself and his parents’ religious community as inspiration for The Chosen. Do you ever find that your beliefs are in conflict with those of the institutions around you? Make a Venn diagram contrasting your beliefs with those of your family. Where do these beliefs most dramatically differ or overlap?

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Venn Diagram

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about the PLAYWRIGHT: Aaron Posner

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aron Posner is a Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award-winning director and playwright. He is a founder and former Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre, an Associate Artist at both the Folger Theatre and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. His adaptations include Chaim Potok’s The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev (both of which have enjoyed successful runs at more than 50 theatres across the country and the latter of which ran for ten months Off-Broadway and won both the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best New Off-Broadway play and the John Gassner Award), as well as Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, Mark Twain’s A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage, an adaptation of three Kurt Vonnegut short stories, entitled Who Am I This Time? (and other conundrums of love). His Chekhov inspired Stupid F****** Bird debuted at Woolly Mammoth and won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play as well as the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Play or Musical. It has received productions and awards from around the country. His second Chekhov adaptation Life Sucks premiered at Theatre J and the third, No Sisters, was produced by Studio Theatre. His musical for young audiences The Gift of Nothing received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Play and Musical Adaptation for its production at the Kennedy Center. He recently won a Jeff Award for Best Director for his work on The Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Aaron was raised in Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Northwestern University, is an Eisenhower Fellow, and lives near Washington, DC.

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“ Chaim wrote about core conflicts between people and powerful forces like family, religion, and society. There tend to be no villains in his stories, and very little fancy or pyrotechnic writing. His stories are filled with people doing their best to live their lives in keeping with their own deeply held beliefs and convictions. But sometimes, when those beliefs and conviction are in conflict within a community or a family, or even within one’s self, it can be very tricky. That is where Chaim located most of his work. He explored big, hard questions in honest, intelligent and insightful ways.”

– Aaron Posner, 2011

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

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glossary 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine.

On May 14th 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Subsequently, he became known as «Israel›s founding father.”

Abba – the Hebrew word for ‘father.’

Adolf Hitler – a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He championed the genocide of groups that he deemed “outside of the German race.”

Apikorism – a disbeliever or skeptic; one who does not adhere to Jewish beliefs or practices.

Caftan – a man’s long, belted tunic.

Chai – the Hebrew word for both ‘life’ and ’18.’

Cossacks – Russian military units who often persecuted Jewish people and communities during the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 1900s.

Dunagrees – pants made out of blue denim, blue jeans.

Gematriya – a method of interpreting the Hebrew scriptures by adding the numerical value of words, based on those of each letter in that word.

Goyim – a person (goy) or group of people (goyim) that are not Jewish.

David Ben-Gurion –the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. BenGurion’s passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in

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GLOSSARY

continued

Dogmatic – inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.

Ernest Hemingway –an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Famous works include The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Fanatical – filled with excessive and single-minded zeal. Obsessively concerned about something.

Hassidic Juadism – a sect of the Jewish religion noted for its religious conservatism nad social seclusion.

Its members adhere strictly to both Orthodox Jewish practices and the tradiitons of Eastern European Jews.

Fyodor Dostoevsky – a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher, credited with writing some of the first works of existentialism.

He is famous for works such as The Idiot, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov.

Holy War – a war or violent campaign waged often by religious extremists for what is considered to be a holy purpose.

Jerusalem – A holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims; the capital of the ancient kingdom of Judah and of the modern state of Israel. The name means “city of peace.” Jerusalem is often called Zion; Mount Zion is the hill on which the fortress of the city was built.

Joe DiMaggio – an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15 – July 16, 1941.) He died at the age of 84.

Hank Greenberg –the first Jewish superstar in American baseball. He attracted national attention in 1934 when he refused to play on Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday in Judaism, even though he was not particularly observant religiously and his team (the Detroit Tigers) was in the middle of a pennant race.

Macher – a person who gets things done. It can also be a derogatory word meaning “overbearing person.”

Madison Square Garden (The Garden) – a large, indoor arena in Manhattan built on top of Penn Station.

It has hosted circuses, concerts, political rallies, basketball games, and more.

“Haganah and Irgun boys” – a reference to men in the army. The Haganah was the first iteration of the Israel Defense Force. The Irgun was a group of soldiers who split from the Haganah because they disagreed with their tactics of restraint against Arab gangs.

Meshugunah – a Yiddish word meaning a person who is strange, eccentric, or irresponsible.

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Messiah – a leader or savior of a particular group or cause. The Messiah is the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation as told in the Hebrew Bible.

Mishnah – the first major edition of Jewish oral traditions, also called “the Oral Torah.” The Mishnah consists of six orders (sedarim), each containing 7–12 tractates. Mishnah can also indicate a single paragraph or a verse.

Momzer – a Hebrew word meaning the child of an incestuous or adulterous relationship.

Payos – the Hebrew word for sidelocks or sidecurls. Payos are worn by some men and boys in the Orthodox Jewish community based on an interpretation of the Biblical rule against shaving the “corners” of one’s head.

Paratroopers – a person or group of people equipped to be dropped by parachute from aircraft.

Passover – a Jewish holiday that celebrates the end of Hebrew enslavement in Egypt.

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GLOSSARY

continued

Rabbi – a Jewish scholar or teacher, especially one who studies or teaches Jewish law. The term also refers to a person appointed as a Jewish religious leader.

Talmud – a collection of Jewish writings made up of two components: the Mishnah, or Oral Torah, and the Gemara, analyses written by Rabbis. The word “Talmud” translates literally as “instruction.” It is over 6,200 pages long and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law.

Sanhedrin – an ancient assembly of twenty-three to seventy-one men appointed in every city in the Land of Israel. In the Hebrew Bible, Moses and the Israelites were commanded by God to establish courts of judges who were given full authority over the people of Israel, who were commanded by God to obey every word the judges instructed and every law they established.

Tatte – the Yiddish word for ‘father.’

The Ten Commandments – a set of ten laws or rules that Jewish tradition says God handed to Moses at the top of Mount Sinai. These commandments include worshipping only one God, honoring parents, and remembering the Sabbath.

Semitic – relating to the peoples who speak the Semitic languages, especially Hebrew and Arabic.

Shabbos/Shabbat – Judaism’s “day of rest.” It begins Friday at sundown and ends on Saturday at sundown.

Torah – the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded down into five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Shul – a Jewish place of worship, a synagogue.

Sigmund Freud – an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

Tuchus – a Yiddish word meaning ‘butt’ or ‘behind.’

Tzaddik –a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as Biblical figures or spiritual masters.

Symbolic Logic – the study of symbols that translate formal equations.

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Tzitzit – specially knotted ritual fringes, or tassels, worn by observant Jews. The Torah commands: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: They shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments… And this shall be tzitzit for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of God, and perform them.”

United Nations –an intergovernmental organization tasked to promote international co-operation and to create and maintain international order. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established in 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict.

Yeshiva – an Orthodox Jewish elementary or secondary school.

Yoma – a section of the Mishnah and the Talmud, primarily concerned with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Yiddish – a language used by Jews in central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust. It was originally a German dialect with words from Hebrew and today is spoken mainly in the US, Israel, and Russia.

Zionism – a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl.

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GLOSSARY

continued

In the Classroom

ACTIVITY: For each show in its season, Long Wharf’s Graphics Director designs a unique image for the show’s program, poster, and other marketing materials.

Based on your knowledge of the play, its themes, and source material, create your own show poster. In crafting your design, consider how your image can communicate the ideas of the play to your prospective audience.

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Create Your Own Show Poster

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT In The Chosen, the lives of the characters are profoundly affected by the events that were happening outside of the United States during the 1940s and 50s. The following is a brief timeline that explains just a few of those events in detail.

1933-1945 – Jewish Persecution and the Holocaust – During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, more than 400 decrees are placed on Jews, affecting where they can live, who they can spend time with, where children can go to school, etc. During this time, thousands of Jews flee Europe and seek refuge in Palestine.

In a period marked by intense fighting on both the eastern and western fronts of World War II [1942-1945], Nazi Germany also intensifies its pursuit of the ‘Final Solution.’ These years see systematic deportations of millions of Jews to concentration camps, where most are killed. The Germans and their collaborators murder six million European Jews as part of a systematic plan of genocide—the Holocaust.

June 6, 1944 – The Normandy Invasion, D-Day, occurs when one hundred and fifty-five thousand Allied troops, including American forces and those of eleven other allied nations (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom) land in France. Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of France to begin the World War II invasion of Europe that would lead to the liberation of Paris.

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

continued

April 12, 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly; Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief of World War II.

the Jews and the other for the Palestinian Arabs.

Jerusalem, cherished by both Muslims and Jews as a holy city, is to become an international enclave under U.N. trusteeship.

January 10, 1946 – The first meeting of the United Nations general assembly occurs after its founding on October 24, 1945 by fifty-one nations, including the Security Council nations of China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. These actions would lead to the disbanding of the League of Nations on April 18, when its mission was transferred to the U.N.

The Zionists, then led by David Ben-Gurion, accept this partition plan, even though they had always dreamed of controlling all of western Palestine and Jerusalem. The Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab states reject the partition proposal. They felt that Palestine is all theirs, that the Jews were a foreign implant foisted upon them, and that they have the strength to drive them out.

Nov. 29, 1947 – The United Nations General Assembly votes 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions to partition western Palestine into two states -- one for

May 14, 1948 – Israel Declares Its Independence. In front of the leaders of the Yishuv [Jewish community in Palestine] in the Tel Aviv Art Museum, David Ben-

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Gurion reads out proclaims the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine to be called Medinat Israel-the State of Israel. The next day, the first Arab-Israeli war begins. As the fighting intensifies and Israel is able to hold its ground, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians become refugees.

in response to a number of factors, including the growing salience of the Palestine question in interArab politics; the increasing friction between the Arab states and Israel over water diversion projects and other issues; and the growth of underground, independent Palestinian nationalist activity, which Arab governments, notably that of Egypt, wanted to preempt.

June 2, 1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is established in Jerusalem. It is founded

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: How do Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner use historical events to inspire the action of the novel/play? What are some larger ideas and themes that the authors are investigating?

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understanding gematria (Excerpts from What Is Gematria? by Hila Ratzabi)

Gematria is a numerological system by which Hebrew letters correspond to numbers. This system, developed by practitioners of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), derived from Greek influence and became a tool for interpreting biblical texts. The term “gematria” comes from the Greek “geometria,” and the concept can be found in the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato.

In gematria, each Hebrew letter is represented by a number (for example, aleph = 1, bet = 2, etc.). One can then calculate the numerical value of a word by adding together the values of each letter in it. In the realm of biblical interpretation, commentators base an argument on numerological equivalence of words. If a word’s numerical value equals that of another word, a commentator might draw a connection between these two words and the verses in which they appear and use this to prove larger conceptual conclusions.

Much of gematria focuses on the various names of God and the powers of these names. The name Elohim (one of the words in Hebrew for ‘God’) adds up to the number 86, which equals the value of the word hateva (Nature). This equivalence leads to the conclusion that Elohim refers to the divine presence as it manifests in the physical world.

Throughout history, some people have believed that the Torah contains secrets that can be revealed by gematria and used to predict historical events. Some Hasidic communities that are steeped in the study of kabbalistic literature believe that the Torah, as read through the lens of gematria, contains clues to current events. Skeptics, however, have noted that gematria can be employed as “proof” to support diametrically opposing positions, depending on the words and phrases one chooses to highlight and calculate.

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SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

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On Saturday August 12th, 2017, a “Unite the Right” rally was planned in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest against the removal of a statue of Confederate icon General Robert E Lee. Described as one of the largest white supremacist events in recent US history, it was organized by Jason Kessler, a former journalist and a member of the Proud Boys, an ultra-nationalist group.

Marchers descended on the University of Virginia carrying torches and yelling slogans “white lives matter” and “blood and soil”.

That afternoon, a speeding car rammed into anti-racist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. The speeding car fled the scene but was soon located and stopped by police.

The following is an opinion piece written for The New York Times in response to these events.

What Jewish Children Learned from Charlottesville

By Nathan Englander August 15, 2017 “kids with horns,” they told their son, he should leave other children alone.

This dirty Jew remembers every penny thrown at him.

The ones thrown from above, as we waited to be picked up from the public pool in my hometown on Long Island, our yarmulkes pinned to wet hair. By then, I was big enough to feel shame for the younger kids, who knew no better than to scurry around, as our local anti-Semites laughed.

I’ll never forget the shame of it.

Nor any of the other affronts, from the swastika shaving-creamed on our front door on Halloween to the kid on his bike yelling, “Hitler should have finished you all.” I remember every fistfight, every broken window, every catcall and curse. I remember them because each made me — a fifth-generation American — feel unsafe and unwelcome in my own home, just as was intended.

I remember walking home from synagogue at my father’s side, in our suits and ties, and seeing a neighbor boy crawling on his hands and knees, surrounded by bullies, this time picking up pennies by force. I remember my father rushing in and righting the boy, and sending those kids scattering.

I could, likewise, catalog every tough-Jew story of victory in the face of hatred. My favorite still: that of my bull-necked great-grandfather who worked for the railroads, who in response to the guy on the next bar stool saying there were “too many Jews” in the place knocked the bum out with a single punch, without getting up from his perch.

I remember when, at that same corner, on a different day, those budding neo-Nazis surrounded my sister, and I raced home for help. I remember my parents running back, and my father and mother (all five feet of her) confronting the parents of one of the boys, who then gave him a winking, Trumpian chiding for behavior they didn’t care to condemn. Even if it’s

But my great-grandfather is history. My childhood is history.

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I live in Brooklyn now, where my father grew up. It was here, after watching people cheer Barack Obama’s victory in the streets, after gay marriage became legal nationwide and after other evolutionary steps, that I was finally able to embrace the past as the past and look at our collective present in a new light.

lost. A generation, and so much more, stolen away.

There is the trauma of those assaulted by Nazis on American soil and the tragedy that is Heather Heyer’s murder that belongs to her and her family alone. And then there is what all the rest of us share — the pain and violence and the lessons we draw from them.

Because the children who witness a day like that, and a president like this, will not forget the fear and disrespect tailored to the black child, the Muslim child, the Jewish child.

Secular now, I watch the younger religious Jews in awe. They don’t slip their yarmulkes into their pockets out of fear. It hit me at, of all places, a Nets game. I was amazed by all the yarmulkes in the crowd, and the boys beneath them eating hot dogs from — who would have believed it — kosher concession stands.

They will not forget the assault rifles that this government puts in these violent men’s hands, nor the chants that black lives don’t matter and that the Jews will not replace them — just as I will never not hear what that kid on the bike screamed or stop seeing my father helping a boy, crawling for pennies, off his knees.

In a New York sports tradition, one of them was mouthing off at anyone and everyone who was rooting for the visiting team. I watched him razzing people, opening his mouth without thinking he’d be beaten to a pulp for drawing attention to himself. But no one said a single non-basketball-related, Jew-hating word.

While harking back to my pious, head-covered days, I am reminded of a notion that our rabbis taught us: The theft of time is a crime like any other. Back then it was about interrupting class — one minute wasted was a minute of learning lost. But multiply that minute by everyone in the room, and it became 15, 20 minutes, half an hour’s worth of knowledge that none of us could ever get back.

I can’t tell you how much pride I took in that moment, the same syrupy pride I take when sitting on a subway car where no two faces, no two histories, seem alike, and feeling nothing but minding-our-own-business good will I felt the same watching all our children in the park, knowing that they must recognize difference but see nothing in it to fear. How great it must be, I thought, to grow up in that America, a place still flawed but striving to do better.

Saturday in Charlottesville was just one day, but think of that one day multiplied by all of us, across this great country. Think of the size of that setback, the assault on empathy, the divisiveness and tiki-torched terror multiplied by every single citizen of this nation.

It may as well be millions of years of dignity, of civility, of progress lost.

I understood that, in my 40s, I was already part of history. That certain things I knew didn’t need to be known anymore.

And yet, in seven months of this presidency, in one single day in Charlottesville, Va., all of that is

Just from that one day.

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: How do you think the characters in The Chosen would react to the events that occurred in Charlottesville? Would they be surprised?

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additional resources Books by Chaim Potok: •

The Chosen

•

The Promise

•

My Name is Asher Lev

•

The Gift of Asher Lev

•

Davita’s Harp

•

In the Beginning

•

I am the Clay

•

Wanderings

•

The Book of Lights

•

The Gates of November

•

Old Men at Midnight

Movies that examine the Jewish religion and/or culture: •

Waltz with Bashir

•

The Chosen

•

Yentl

•

Left Luggage

•

Fiddler on the Roof

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READ A REVIEW –

then WRITE your own!

The following is a review of a 2011 production of The Chosen. Notice how the reviewer comments on all aspects of the show, including acting, writing, stage configuration, set design, lighting design, and more.

You can read this review and, after seeing Long Wharf’s production, write your own! of integrity engaged in his own private struggle, with how best to nourish a child’s heart as well as his soul.

Review: Peter Marks on Theater J’s ‘The Chosen’ at Arena Stage

By Peter Marks Tuesday, March 15, 2011 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/ article/2011/03/14/AR2011031404898.html

Arena has opened its renovated facilities in Southwest Washington to Theater J, whose customary base of operations is the D.C. Jewish Community Center on 16th Street NW. The arrangement reveals yet another of the remarkable spectrum of initiatives that Arena is rolling out in what now must be called its renaissance season. Allowing other D.C. organizations to work in its spaces - Georgetown University is going to show up shortly with its “Glass Menagerie Project” - gives a big boost to the efforts to bind together an arts community more meaningfully. Programmatically as well as architecturally, Arena is lighting this theater town up.

The multitalented director Aaron Posner conjures with exceptional intelligence and sensitivity the religious and generational tempests of “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok’s 1967 coming-of-age novel recounting the unlikely friendship of young Jewish men from conflicting wings of the faith.

The harmoniously assembled Theater J production, presented in Arena Stage’s largest space, the Fichandler, is one of those rare literary adaptations that frees itself of page-bound encumbrances and allows us to believe its characters are beings created for this occasion. The illusion is reinforced affectingly by the five-man ensemble and, in particular, by Joshua Morgan and Derek Kahn Thompson, who portray the friends, Danny and Reuven, with uncommon feel for the strains, large and small, that threaten to undo a profound connection.

And just as Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” now in the Kreeger, was a great first get for Arena’s upgraded outreach to companies across the nation, Theater J’s “The Chosen” announces in satisfying style this expansion of local cooperation. One only hopes that Theater J, accustomed to performances in an auditorium with less than one-third the seating, can meet the marketing challenges of the 683-seat Fichandler (even if the production’s 19-day residency is rather short).

Although the play delves in some detail into the nature of their spiritual rift - Danny is from a more rigid, Hasidic family - “The Chosen” is by no means aimed at Jewish audiences only. The issue of tolerance within branches of a faith and the debate over what level of adherence represents scrupulous devotion are forever being wrestled with in every denomination.

The in-the-round configuration of the Fich is not always the friendliest for naturalistic plays, either. But set designer James Kronzer plots a layout that smartly and flexibly illuminates “The Chosen’s” dichotomies.

In one corner he places the study of Reuven’s father, the Talmudic scholar David Malter (Edward Gero, in an endearingly owlish turn). Diagonally opposite is the inner sanctum of Foucheux’s Reb Saunders; both are defined by a collection of handsome windows suspended in midair.

And certainly, the core concern of Posner’s adaptation is a universal one: the almost mystical control a father can wield over a son. The story explores the ways in which duty to one’s God and one’s father can intermingle and become confusingly entangled. This is especially true of Morgan’s Danny, who is being groomed through an emotionally barren regimen to one day assume the leadership role held by his rabbi father (a fine, nearly unrecognizable Rick Foucheux), a man

The physical geometry, expertly lighted by designer Nancy Schertler, works especially well for the scene in which the teenage Danny and Reuven first clash - on a ballfield. The boxy outlines of the stage are adapted effortlessly as a baseball diamond. Occasionally,

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REVIEW

continued

have been across the globe. Morgan, wearing severe Hasidic kaftan and sidelocks, magnetically conveys the character’s exotic essence. It’s a performance at once intense and deeply sympathetic; the actor lets you see by impressive degree the migration in Danny’s manner, away from arrogance to a gentler kind of selfknowledge and assurance.

though, playgoers on one side or another are unhelpfully and perhaps unavoidably denied a full view of an actor’s face. In a work in which so much passes unspoken between characters - indeed, the joyous and corrosive properties of silence is a significant theme here - you want to be able to take in every expression.

“The Chosen” is Reuven’s account of his years as a youth in postwar Brooklyn, where he leads a vigorously observant Jewish life, but one that’s considered heretical by the standards of Reb Saunders. The narrator is Reuven in middle age, and portrayed with abundant charm by Aaron Davidman. What he constructs is the tale of the intertwined development of his and Danny’s Jewish identities and paths in the world, which, of course, take surprising turns.

Thompson’s boyishly down-to-earth Reuven gives us a rewardingly all-American touchstone, and in the warm relationship the actor creates with Gero’s David, provides for Danny a persuasive alternative to the remoteness of his own father.

Posner’s generosity to the characters - echoing Potok’s own - is affirmed in a moving reconciliation at evening’s end, a redemptive moment that underlines the wisdom running through “The Chosen.”

Enlightenment, the play tells us, comes in many guises, and not all blessings emanate from ancient verses.

Some of the most entertaining interludes of “The Chosen” emerge as a result of the consciousnessraising each young man undergoes in the orbit of the other. As the older Reuven notes, the two grew up only five blocks apart, but the distance might as well

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WRITE A REVIEW

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SOURCES http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/charlottesville-attack-170813081045115.html http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1950.html https://berkshireonstage.com/2011/08/11/interview-writer-director-aaron-posner-tackles-some-explosive-issues-in-my-name-is-asherlev/ http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000031 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/chaim-potok http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/gematria/ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/books/chaim-potok-73-dies-novelist-illumined-the-world-of-hasidic-judaism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/jewish-charlottesville-anti-semitism.html?rref=collection%2Fsectionc ollection%2Fopinion-contributors&action=click&contentCollection=contributors&region=stream&module=stream_ unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/parents

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& s t n e m monutes mi

SAVE THE DATE! FRIDAY APRIL 27 @ 7PM

A SPOKEN WORD AND VISUAL ARTS FESTIVAL FOR connecticut YOUTH 4th L ANNUA

WHAT IS IT? An evening of original performances pieces created by students from all over Connecticut!

SUBMISSIONS OPEN IN FEBRUARY! Apply at longwharf.org/moments-minutes-festival 40

August Wilson MONOLOGUE COMPETITION

Save the Date: New Haven Regional Competition Friday, March 9th @ 7PM @ Long Wharf Theatre www.longwharf.org/august-wilson-monologue-competition

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