This article investigates the scholarly treatment of the place and function of Holocaust in Chaim Potok's novels The Chosen and The Promise. Tracing a reception history of Potok's work in the academy, this article argues that previous studies of Potok's novels have relegated the Holocaust to a background historical event that informs the internal religious and ideological conflicts of the novels. Reading the two novels together, this article argues that the novels, through the characters of Danny and Reuven, explore a variety of ideological positions that each demand particular action in response to the Holocaust. The Promise, I argue, sees Reuven discern another possibility, one that engages with the ostensible incomprehensibility of the Holocaust as a generative force for sympathetic engagement with irreconcilable ideological positions, offering a new model for Jewish continuity in his post-Holocaust United States.

本文对Chaim Potok小说《选择与承诺》中大屠杀的地位和作用进行了学术研究。本文追溯了波托克在学院中的接受历史，认为以前对波托克的小说的研究已将大屠杀归咎于背景历史事件，该事件为小说的内部宗教和意识形态冲突打下了基础。一起阅读这两部小说，本文认为这些小说通过丹尼和鲁汶的角色，探索了各种意识形态立场，每种立场都需要对大屠杀做出特定的反应。承诺我认为，鲁汶发现了另一种可能性，这种可能性与大屠杀表面上的不可理解性有关，后者是同情地与不可调和的意识形态立场进行交往的生成力，为他在大屠杀后的美国延续犹太人提供了新的模式。