Herman Harold Potok was born in the Bronx to Benjamin Max (d. 1958) and Mollie (Friedman) Potok (d. 1985), Jewish immigrants from Poland. He was the oldest of four children, all of whom either became a rabbi or married one. His Hebrew name was Chaim Tzvi. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At the age of 17 he made his first submission to the Atlantic Monthly. It wasn't published, but he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.

In 1949 when Chaim was twenty years of age, he began to publish stories in his Yeshiva University (an Orthodox college in Manhattan) yearbook, which he helped edit. In 1950 Potok graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature.

After four years in the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he graduated as a Conservative Rabbi and was named director of the Conservative Youth Organization Leaders Training Fellowship. Over the next couple of years Potok was the receiver of many literary and homiletics prizes.For one summer in 1952, Potok met Adena Sara Mosevitzsky, a psychiatric social worker, at a Camp Ramah, Ojai, California, while being a camp Director (1957—1959). They were married on June 8, 1958, and had three children:Rena born in 1962, Naama born in 1965 , and Akiva born in 1968.

After receiving a master's degree in Hebrew literature, and his later rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Potok joined the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He described his time in South Korea as being a transformative experience. Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in the Orthodox synagogues at home.

When Potok came home he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of an educational camp run by the Jewish Conservative movement. In 1958 Chaim Potok married Adena Mosevitsky, a social worker.A year after he began a graduate study at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia. 1962, Potok was blessed with a daughter whom he named Rena. He lived in Israel in 1963, wrote a doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a new novel.In 1964 Potok, his wife and their daughter moved to Brooklyn where Potok became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism. He then joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. One year later, Potok was appointed editor-in-chief in Philadelphia for the Jewish Publication Society. He then became the chairman of the publication committee. Later that year, their daughter Naama was born. Potok was attending school at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a doctorate in philosophy.

In 1967 Potok published one of his best works of literature. His book The Chosen, won the Edward Lewis Wallant Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award. A year later, Potok’s son Akiva was born.Potok wrote a sequel to The Chosen in 1969 called The Promise, which details the issues of the value and identity between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. This book also won The Athenaeum Award the same year of its publication. Just one short year later Potok moved his family to Jerusalem, Israel. Not long afterward the Jewish Publication Society appointed him as the special projects editor. One of Chaim’s most praised works was born into the world in 1972, My Name is Asher Lev. A story about a boy who has both an internal and external struggle with his parents, his religion and his highly favored artwork. The next of his literary work was In the Beginning which he let unfold to the community in 1975.In 1977 Potok moved his family back to Pennsylvania. Potok often said that the book Brideshead Revisited is what inspired his work and literature. Which he continued to develop with the publishing of Chaim Potok's History of the Jews in 1978. This book is a fascinating history of the Jews of which Potok covers thousands of years of Jewish background.

From 1974 until his death, Potok served as a special projects editor for the Jewish Publication Society. During this time, Potok centered his effort on translating the Hebrew Bible into English. He also collected a series of pamphlets on Jewish Ethics to contribute to his organization.In 1978 he published his non-fiction piece, Wanderings:Chaim Potok’s Story of the Jews. His fascinating novel is a historical account of the Jews that comes alive due to Potoks personal and detailed writing.

His 1981 novel was The Book of Lights. In an interview Potok told that The Book of Lights was in some ways an account of his experiences in Asia during the war. He said about the novel “it reshaped the neat, coherent model of myself and my place in the world.”

His highly successful novel The Chosen was made into a film released in 1981, which won the top award at the World Film Festival, Montreal. Potok had a cameo role as a professor. The film starred Rod Steiger, Maximilian Schell and Robby Benson. It also became a short-lived off-Broadway musical and was subsequently adapted as a stage play by Aaron Posner in collaboration with Potok, which premiered at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia in 1999.

After having much success with The Chosen, he wrote 18 other works. Potok’s 1985 novel, Davita’s Harp, is the only one of Potok's novels to feature a female protagonist.In 1990 The Gift of Asher Lev (the sequel to My Name is Asher Lev) continued his successful story and finally completed his intentions for writing the book. Following The Gift of Asher Lev Potok wrote many plays such as Sins of The Father and Out of The Depths. In the years that trailed he wrote a variety of literature including, short stories, novellas, book reviews and academic articles. In 1992 Potok completed another full length novel entitled I am the Clay about a courageous struggle of a war ravaged family. His 1993 young adult literature The Tree of Here was followed by two others, The Sky of Now(1995) and Zebra and Other Stores(1998).

Throughout his later years, Potok was a very sought out speaker for lectures to many varied Universities.

In 2001 Potok published a three linked novellas titled Old Men at Midnight. However, this would be his last piece of work because Potok was diagnosed with cancer shortly after the book was published. Chaim Potok died of brain cancer in his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002 at the age of 73.

Chaim Potok had a large influence on Jewish American authors and to all who read his books. He was a very intelligent and intellectual writer that is still respected today.

Chaim Potok's schooling was very important to him although sometimes he would drift off and draw or think during class. His parents discouraged his writing and reading of non Jewish subjects. He spent countless hours in the library studying and reading secular novels without telling his parents. Because he loved reading Mark Twain and Charles Dickens he decided to become a writer.

He had many chances to write and edit. He was the Editor of Jewish Publication Society of America, along with serving as managing editor of "Conservative Judaism" in 1964. He submitted his first piece when he was 17 and it was rejected, but that didn't stop him from becoming a celebrated author. He rejected the beaten path and would never conform or take the easy way with his writing which lead him to be cut off by everyone he loved. The books that he wrote were both influenced by his religion and his life. His first book The Chosen was a 39 week bestseller and the first book by a major publisher to portray Orthodox Judaism in the U.S. He often wrote about Hasidic Judaism and put his religion into his writings. His next big book My Name is Asher Lev is considered to be considered partially autobiographical.

Potok was first interested in writing when he was 16, after reading the book Brideshead Revisited ??? by Evelyn Waugh. Regardless of his parents, Jewish teachers and leaders disapproving of his interest in writing, he continued with it and at age 17 he submitted his first manuscript to the Atlantic Monthly. Though it was not published, he received a complimentary note from the editor asking if he would write a novel.

While attending the Yeshiva University, he helped edit the school’s yearbook in which he published stories and essays. He received a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 1950. In 1959 while continuing his education at the University of Pennsylvania, Potok was appointed scholar-in-residence at the Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia. Four years later while living in Israel, he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon, and started working on a new novel.

Soon after he moved to Brooklyn, New York, Chaim became the managing editor of a Jewish magazine called Conservative Judaism, and he began teaching at the Jewish Theological Seminary. From 1965 until 2002 Potok served in the Jewish Publication Society of America. The first 8 years he edited, until he was appointed Special Projects Editor.

Chaim Potok and his fictional character Asher Lev grew up in urban environments in New York. While not necessarily Hasidic, Potok was raised in an extremely Orthodox home. In the book, Asher Lev paints all his life and causes a lot of conflict with his father who wants him to do something else, much as Chaim Potok did in his childhood. Asher decides to continue as a painter and it destroys his family, but Potok eventually decided to be an author and painted in his free time. Potok has said he relates to Asher Lev more than any of his other characters.

He bequeathed his papers to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an alumnus and where he taught.

In addition to being an accomplished author, Chaim Potok was also a artist. He recreated the painting "The Brooklyn Crucifixion", which the character Asher Lev painted in the book My Name is Asher Lev.

"Potok cited James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ernest Hemingway, and S.Y. Agnon as his chief literary influences. He wrote several plays, as well as numerous short stories, essays and book reviews. His work was significant in raising the issue of the conflict between the traditional aspects of Jewish thought and culture and modernity to a wider, non-Jewish culture." ("New World Encyclopdedia") It took many years for people to understand who he was and what he believed. Chaim once said, "All beginnings are hard," but he persevered until the end.

Over his lifetime he released many books. The books became extremely popular, and were based on the hardships of his life.

In honor of Chaim Potok, the University of Pennsylvania created a collaboration of his life entitled "Chaim Potok Papers." This includes correspondence, writings, lectures, sermons, article clippings, memorabilia and fan mail. One of his ardent fans was a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, who wrote to Potok saying he had read all his books “with fervor and friendship.” The University feels great honor to curate the papers of Potok. They claim his works have a widespread impact on generations of students and researchers alike.("Penn - University of Pennsylvania")"Penn Libraries Receive Chaim Potok Papers." Penn - University of Pennsylvania. 15 January 2010. Web. 12 February 2010 .