''In the Beginning'' is the 1975 fourth novel by

Chaim Potok Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American author and rabbi. His first book ''The Chosen'' (1967), was listed on ''The New York Times’'' best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies. Biography H ...

. The novel tells the story of David Lurie, an Orthodox Jewish boy from

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

growing up in the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

of the 1930s up to the revealing of the fate of the Lurie family's relatives in Poland at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Sanford V. Sternlicht ''Chaim Potok: A Critical Companion'' 2000 0313311811 p. 96 "In the Beginning, Chaim Potok's fourth novel, reflects his preoccupation with the theme of maturation. Again a bright young Jewish male from an Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox New York City Jewish family grows up and successfully rebels against the constraints of parents and community. ."

Plot

At the beginning of the novel, David Lurie is a six-year-old boy growing up in the Bronx in the late 1920s. David is a smart and sensitive boy who is frequently ill due to an injury suffered as a newborn: a deviated septum caused by a fall onto the stone steps of their apartment as his parents were bringing him home from the hospital. David's mother and father, both Polish Jews from Lemberg, had emigrated to the United States after the war along with many of their friends, seeking a better life in a country less hostile to Jews. David's mother Ruth was first married to Max's brother David, who was killed in a pogrom following the war, after which Max married Ruth as prescribed by Jewish law. The main character David is often said to resemble his dead Uncle David with his love of reading and sensitive nature. Max, who had been a member of the Polish army only to come home to anti-Semitic persecution, founded a group called the Am Kedoshim Society ("nation of holy people") with many friends who had served with him in the war, with the goal of actively fighting anti-Semites. After the war, Max sought to move all of the members of the society from Poland to America, as well as his and his wife's parents and extended families. The two families resist making such a drastic change and ultimately decide not to leave Poland, but the final member of the Society arrives in America just before the stock market crash of 1929. After the crash, the society's finances are decimated, its members scatter to more affordable areas of New York, and Max sinks into a depression, feeling that he has made a terrible mistake in encouraging everyone to move to a land that is seemingly no longer prosperous. Max eventually recovers and decides to become a watchmaker; beginning with a small watch repair business, he eventually starts a small chain of jewelry stores. During World War II, the German invasion of Poland cuts off contact between the Luries and their families there. After the war ends, the Luries learn that everyone in both families -- nearly one hundred and fifty people -- were killed in

Bergen Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrat ...

. During the course of the novel, David develops an interest in Bible scholarship, and eventually discovers secular authors who discuss the human origins of the Bible, in direct opposition to the belief that the Bible is the word of God as revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. David perceives an edge of anti-Semitism in many of these works, but finds it difficult to ignore the scholarly arguments these authors are making. David's ultimate destiny is to become a Bible scholar who is still a person of faith -- to employ modern methods to make a new beginning for his people.

References

{{Chaim Potok 1975 American novels Jewish American novels Psychological novels Novels by Chaim Potok Novels set in Brooklyn Fiction set in the 1930s