Israeli author Alon Hilu delivered a lecture to the Wesleyan community at Russell House this Tuesday as a part of the ongoing “Contemporary Israeli Voices” series. An acclaimed author, onetime playwright, producer, and lawyer, Hilu talked about his first novel “Death of a Monk,” published originally in Hebrew in 2004 and recently translated into English.
“Death of a Monk,” which won this year’s prestigious Israeli Presidential Prize, is a fictionalized retelling of the historical scandal now referred to as the Damascus Affair. In 1840, Franciscan Capuchin Friar Father Thomas went missing from his home in Damascus on the eve of Passover. When no culprit could be found, religious and government authorities started using torture and induced false confessions, which indicted the Jewish community. These indictments negatively affected the Jewish community that was vying for power with Christian sects for minority control over Muslim dominated Syria. This example of blood libel led to massive amounts of unfounded arrests and widespread civilian attacks on Jews in the months and years to come.
Hilu developed his own theory on the still unsolved Damascus Affair that became the basis for his novel “Death of A Monk.” He hypothesized that homosexuality had a large role to play in not only the murder, but also the framing of innocent Jews. Thus, he created the fictional character Aslan Farhi, whose name was taken from a real Syrian family. A young homosexual man, Farhi accuses his abusive father of the murder so as to avoid being forced into marriage with a woman he can’t bring himself to love.
While Hilu acknowledged that his theory is highly speculative, he also mentioned that it does not contradict with the current facts known about the disappearance, but simply adds emotion to what is known. Heavily researched, “Death of A Monk” incorporates factual anecdotes and quotes from the Damascus trials in order to convey the realistic, historical aesthetic for which Hilu was striving. Praised by the Gay and Lesbian and Jewish communities, and even the descendants of the family around which the characters were based, “Death of A Monk” is a testament to the fact that a story is not always remembered from one viewpoint.
“History can be retold in many ways,” Hilu said.
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