THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ous about retaining the essential in-
tegrity of the book and not prettify-
ing or Hollywooding it, or anything
like that, and I thought it really
worked.
"We (Potok and his wife) went
with Landau because of his track re-
cord. Someone else wanted it at the
same time for a great deal more
money (Potok won't say who it was)
but we gave it to Landau. We figured
that if we're going to take a chance,
let's at least take a chance on a deck
that's stacked in our favor."
The rights to The Chosen were
originally purchased by a Methodist
stockbroker from New Orleans
named Roger Harrison. Potok ex-
plains that Harrison put together a
syndicate of investors and acquired
the property. "Harrison was the one
who actually got the seed money to
create the original script," says
Potok. "I did the screen treatment
but-somebody else did the script,
which Landau eventually read and
as a result became interested in the
property.
"Now Harrison is interested in
filming My Name is Asher Lev, so
we're working on developing that
property now. Some director is al-
ready interested in doing it, but this
time I'm writing the script. I won't let
anyone else do the script because the
story is so volatile, especially the
crucifixion scene at the end."
Potok enjoys working on the
script, and sees the film as being two
or three years down the road. Is he
writing the script with any actors in
mind? "Not really," he replies, "What
I am trying to do is retain the integ-
rity of the characters as I envision
them and let the others worry about
who they think can do the acting. In
my opinion, a good actor can act in
anything.
"My job as a writer is to write the
script the best way I know how and
the director's job is to cast it. Gener-
ally the way it works in moviemak-
ing is that even when you finish the
script, you always work again with
the director. Because movies are a
different discipline and a different
art form, you've sort of got to see it
through • the eyes of the director. So
the script always undergoes several
revisions and the trick is to retain the
integrity of what it is you're trying to
say and at the same time adapt it to
the art form we call moviemaking.
That's why I won't let anyone else
touch the script."
Some movie business analysts
have blamed the failure of The Cho-
sen upon its lackluster promotion.
Even Potok points out that "the di-
rector said it was a sort-of mediocre
ad campaign. `I don't know that much
about the movie business so I can't
make a judgment, but his feeling was
that it was not pushed or marketed to
the extent that he would have liked. I
can't react to that. I have no notion of
how marketing is done in the movies.
It seems to be an ardane field that
certain high priests engage in and
keep the knowledge very much to
themselves. I'm the last one to want
to penetrate that secret society and
find out how they work.
"Nor do I think I know enough to
want to have a say in how movies are
marketed. I mean, what would I say?
Spend mote money and advertise?
They don't need me there to tell them
that."
What did Potok think of Yentl's
box office success? "She (Barbra
Streisand) is so talented that I just ,
can't help but love her ability. From
the point of view of the movie being
an expression of great talent, I liked
it very much. But from the point of
view of it being a depiction of the
(I.B.) Singer story, it, and especially
the ending, was surely not in keeping
with the story.
"All things considered," con-
tinues Potok, "I thought that for a
first-time' directorial stint it was
really quite well done. But there was
a fantasy quality, a sort of fairy-tale
quality to the story that at times
made it too sweet for me. I know too
much about what that shtetl world
was really like. There wasn't enough
of the other world as it was depicted
in the. movie to balance what was
missing.
"But one of the things I must say
was wonderful about it was that she
(Streisand) had the tenacity to fight
that whole Hollywood world and get
that private dream of hers trans-
formed into reality. That alone is an
extraordinary achievement."
From 1965 to 1974, Potok was
editor-in-chief of the venerable
Jewish Publication Society in
Philadelphia. Since 1974, he has
been special projects editor at JPS.
Potok says he does "miss working
with authors on their books i but you
can't do that and write , at the same
time. Besides, I used to do a lot of
traveling and that took me away
from the office for long stretches of
time. It was the kind of job that re-
quires a person to really be on the
spot and as that became increasingly
more difficult for me to do, it was
obvious that I would have to resign.
e lived in Jerusalem
from 1973 to 1977.
Originally, we were
. only going to be there
for a year, but the
family decided that
we were going to stay on. It just be-
came impossible to run the office
from Jerusalem. It was at that point
that I simply suggested they find
someone else for the job. But when I
look back at my tenure at JPS, I am
proud of a number of the projects we
became involved in. Books like the
JPS Bible Commentary (the third
volume was published in the 1981-
1982 season), our books on Israel —
especially the 1967 war, the Jewish
Catalogue, and our translations from
Yiddish into English. We published a
translation of Chaim Grade's The
Well — and we were among the first,
if not the first, to publish him in
English and in book-length format."
.
W
Potok sees a general change in
Jewish publishing. "I see many more
houses involved in Jewish publish-
ing," he explains. "It's clear to recog--
nize that there's a lucrative market
now. That's all the more reason. I
think there should be a Jewish pub- --
lishing house like the JPS. I would
not like to see the fate of Jewish pub-
lishing in America left in the hands
of non-Jewish houses where the only
raison d'etre is the bottom line or the
quarterly report — or a need to get
down to the lo.west common de-
nominator, which is not what the JPS
is all about."
Friday, June 22, 1984 41
"I mean to have people glued to
their seats over a confrontation
with regard to Talmud • ."
But historically, the JPS has not
had a reputation as a publishing
house eagerly sought out by authors
or agents. Although Pot,ok believes
the JPS "was competitive in the area
of beginning writers, once a writer
became established, I don't feel it was
competitive enough to get that writer
to feel that he or she ought to stay on
with us.
"One of the essential problems of
the JPS was in the area of distribu-
tion and marketing. And that's one of
the areas to which we're addressing
ourselves now. In fact, I've just been
asked to take on the chairmanship of
the publication committee. At this
stage of things, we're a kind of corner
grocery store operation, vintage
1945. And what we're trying to do is
make it vintage 1990 a quickly as
possible. We're going to make more of
an effort to pick up established
writers as well as young writers who
are having a difficult time breaking
into print. We will introduce their
work to the public and we will hold on
to them as authors."
How autobiographical are
Potok's novels? He thinks "all
writers who write seriously use their
lives, their worlds, as the raw mate-
rial for their creations. But that
doesn't mean that they put it down
exactly as it happened. A writer acts
as a kind of filter, a visionary for the
material that he or she creates. So
yes, the world that I write about is my
world and-I know it thoroughly. Just
as Faulkner and Hemingway wrote
about their worlds which they knew
thoroughly.
"I think a serious writer carves
out a certain chunk of the world for
himself. It is that territory which he
sets about exploring and presenting
to the rest of the world — whoever it
is that might be interested in reading
about it. And.rny world is the world of
Jewish scholarship — the conflict of
systems of value where individuals
are caught right at the heart of cul-
tures. In other words, it isn't Gour-
met Judaism but Scholarship
Judaism — the story of Torah and the
study of secular Torah like Freud or
physics. And how these things can be
resolved — if indeed they can be re-
solved.
"What I've tried to do is make
these things interesting. There's a lot
of drama in this kind of conflict and
nobody presented it until I began to
write about it.
"I've spent my whole life at the
core of two very powerful cultures
trying to understand the confronta-
tion that occurs when elements of
these cultures collide. But the ele-
ments are from the hearts of the cul-
tures. In other words, it is not what
happens at a bar mitzvah and how
Jews consume the food that interests
me. That happens everywhere. It's
peripheral as far as I'm concerned.
It's what happens when the bar
mitzvah boy reads the Torah that
interests me — or when he studies
Talmud.
"It's the conflict of loyalties. For
example, Zionism being right at the
heart of things Jewish and the pecul-
iar ambivalent American attitude to
the establishment of the Jewish
state. Look at the embargo (of 1948)
— What do you do in an instance like
that? You smuggle guns onto a ship
in defiance. That's the kind of conflict
I'm trying to explore. I'm not advo t-
ing one thing or another in my
novels. I don't think it is the job of a
novelist to preach. It's the job of a
novelist to explore and present, in as
honest and objective way as he can, -.
the dincensions of the world that he's
interested in."
• Potok reflects for a moment and
continues. "Clearly a novelist is a •
human being with his own predilec-
tions, his own predispositions, his
own likes and hates. And that's going
to come across in what he writes. But
is is not my purpose to preach ser-
mons, to be didactic, to tell a person
what he or she ought to do. My pur-
•
,
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