Honoring Elias Khoury (1948 – 2024)
When Elias Khoury was teaching at NYU every spring, his unofficial office hours would take place at La Lanterna di Vittorio café on MacDougal. He would often be at a table with a group of his students, joking with them, talking politics, listening attentively, sharing stories. He was always inclusive, he knew how to make the shyest or sternest crack a smile and laugh with him. (Elias had a great laugh.) He was always ready to laugh at the absurdity of a situation, of life.
I spent many hours at Elias’s table in La Lanterna and learned so much from him, about writers (not only from the Arab world, but from everywhere) and history, but above all about how to live. I learned from his stories, from his advice, but mostly from the example he set. He took human injustice personally. It wasn’t enough to dissect or fume at the events of the world—khallas (enough already)—he needed to write an op-ed for a newspaper right away, he needed to take action. It was a physical obligation. He could get more done in one day in his laid-back, matter-of-fact way than most of us could dream of doing in weeks.
When Elias became a grandfather, he was reborn. His eyes (and entire being) would light up when he talked about his grandson. He would have to buy an extra suitcase to fill up with treasures for him for their reunion in Beirut. It was his own grandmother who introduced him to the great classical Arabic poets. They would read Imru’ al-Qais together, probably before he could walk. Elias taught me a wonderful Arabic expression: the heart is on the heart. More than anyone I’ve encountered, Elias was guided by his heart. His intellect was of course off the charts, but what I will remember most about Elias is his heart. His friends were family to him, and he’d mastered the art of friendship. It seemed effortless for him to keep even faraway friendships alive. They kept him alive.
Elias, you will be missed. The heart is on the heart.
—Jill Schoolman
We are gathering more meaningful words of remembrance here.