Jan 04, 2008  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

While the struggles of the observant gay Christian have been the subject of many novels, the dichotomies of the devout gay Jew have received less mainstream attention. Evan Fallenberg’s debut novel, “Light Fell,” tells the story of Joseph Licht, an Orthodox Israeli man who leaves his wife and 5 sons to pursue the love of a prominent rabbi.

The book first began to take shape 12 years ago, and Fallenberg’s life bears some similarity to his protagonist’s. The Cleveland-born author currently lives in a tiny village in Israel with his male partner of two-and-a-half years and has two sons, ages 16 and 19, from his previous marriage to a woman. Despite these parallels, Fallenberg maintains that the book is autobiographical only in the broadest sense.
 
“I know that people will try to make the connection between me and the protagonist, but when I look at him, I don’t see me at all. I see a character that doesn’t look like me or even act like me,” says Fallenberg. “I’d be happy to sit down and have a conversation with him, but he’s not me. Joseph’s issues are certainly mine, that’s where we overlap.”

In “Light Fell,” Joseph is an Israeli man who accepts a temporary teaching position in Cleveland following his divorce. Fallenberg’s route is just the opposite. He was born in a suburb of Cleveland and moved to Israel in 1985 because he was “looking for home.” The author had originally planned to stay only for one year, but has been there ever since.

A FAMILIARITY WITH Israel is evident in the novel, as Joseph navigates the homophobia and provincialism of the farming villages, the religious history and clandestine cruising of Jerusalem and the pervading tolerance of Tel Aviv, the city that is Israel’s answer to San Francisco. Though he feels the country is very “cutting edge” in terms of its gay legislation, he also holds fresh memories of the 2006 religious protests over a planned Pride parade in Jerusalem.

“This was the only thing, the only event, that brought together leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim world. It was the only issue that these people, men actually, were willing to sit around a table and discuss … This is the thing that’s scariest in a way, its always on the back of my mind. Tel Aviv is a really gay city, but lurking beyond that are a lot of people that don’t see [being gay] in such a friendly manner.”

Even the first male object of Joseph’s love, Rabbi Yoel Rosenzweig, must overcome his own internalized homophobia before the two can embark on their affair. On the night that they first plan to consummate their budding relationship, there’s an extended scene where Yoel leaves Joseph alone to translate Hebrew texts into English while the rabbi seeks God’s council on what to do about his desires. He concludes that to love both God and another man is impossible, but seeks Joseph’s comforts anyway. Despite his resignation, the affair ends tragically, and it’s many years before Joseph can get his life back on track.

“It’s a problem within Orthodox Jewry,” Fallenberg says. “The precepts are very clear, the position in the Torah is very clear.”

Fallenberg will be reading from “Light Fell” at the Library of Congress at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 15. The author is no stranger to Washington, having attended graduate school at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, training to be a diplomat. That career path fizzled and instead he made his living as a teacher. In the last several years Fallenberg has been translating Hebrew literary fiction to English, a job he finds just as engaging as his own writing.

“I’m lucky enough to work on books that are so well written. I think that with really good books I use the same part of my soul that I do for writing.”