Chaim Potok

David Lurie learns that all beginnings are hard. He must fight for his place against the bullies in his Depression-shadowed Bronx neighborhood and his own frail health. As a young man, he must start anew and define his own path of personal belief that diverges sharply with his devout father and everything he has been taught.... From the Paperback edition.

In the Beginning

Reinier Terblanche

This novel is about a Jewish boy growing up in New York through the twenties, the Depression, and WWII. Potok takes the reader into the world as observed by a sickly but intellectually brilliant boy who grapples with what it means to be Jewish in a time where Jews were persecuted and brutally murdered by the millions. It also gives great insight into "the intricacies of an Orthodox education" (Irish Times Review). One of the main themes in the book is that of beginnings and how "all beginnings are hard", Potok takes you on one young man's courageous journey of making his own beginning even if it means stepping beyond the boundaries of his family's strict traditions.

It is worth mentioning that this book assumes at least a basic knowledge of Jewish Orthodoxy as well as the Jewish Bible (Christian Old Testament). But don't let that stop you, read it, it will make your heart swell with compassion and respect for Jewish people and their sacred traditions. I can't recommend it enough and personally, as a Christian, this book gave me a far deeper respect for the "Jewishness" of the Bible that I read and the Rabbi that I follow.

In the Beginning

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