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I’m planning on getting married in 2025 and was wondering if Assyrian wedding planners existed. I don’t have family to help me plan and I am unsure where to start.

This is an old undated photo from my collection of historic data. It is widely known that during the genocide it was the Assyrians of Urmia who took on the task of creating new manuscripts, bibles, and media as many of our literate people were killed in the genocide, mostly clergy. Along with that a lot of our manuscripts were lost so this helped keep things alive. This is why Iraqi Koine is based on the Urmijnayeh dialect too (along with majority of the baquba refugee camps in Iraq being Urimjnayeh) the average Assyrian no longer speaks their original dialect and mostly speak Urmijnayeh influenced dialects. For example many Tiaryeh, Tkhumnaye, Jelwaye etc dont speak their original Hakkari dialect anymore, although a large portion still do.

This does not apply to Chaldeans and Syriacs as they did not suffer a heavy loss of literate people or manuscripts in their areas of heavy population. For example Alqosh.

There were some effects, such as concern that the American missionaries modified the writings, and that the dialect was influenced.

https://preview.redd.it/5pxqtj4pay1e1.jpg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45797f49e8ea309696b058c08957c538acebaa0f

https://preview.redd.it/orrm13z80y1e1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dce90c86b2aefa8397c44a6972640e55c106ca80

Most of our people are recent immigrants to the diaspora. We haven’t had it easy, adjusting to new countries when racism against people like us were at all-time highs. Along with the struggles we face in our new homes, we bring along the baggage of our old homes and all the trauma that comes along with it.

“The lucky ones are the ones who die, because the ones who live have to deal with the trauma for generations”. My professor who works in Armenian/Assyrian/Greek genocide recognition says this. I agree. For generations, we’ve had to endure constant suffering with little break. We have a lot of pain and we’ve never let our guard down after enduring so much hatred.

I’m a strong advocate for mental health. I also think our community would benefit tremendously from increased mental health awareness and efforts. When it all comes down, we need to practice more empathy, compassion, and grace for ourselves and others in our community. At the end of the day, we only have ourselves in a sea of incomparable grief and suffering.

Just another example of social engagement in the real world. Assyrians always include Chaldeans and Syriacs in their initiatives but Chaldeans and Syriacs never go the extra step to reach out to us and include us. This is why Assyrians need to stop doing this and just focus on Assyrians and those who simply and only identify as Assyrian.

I was wondering if anyone else has heard of the saying, "teleh jvankit Bohtan?" Bohtan being a medieval principality under Kurdish rule.

I've heard my mother use this expression from time to time. I believe it generally means: someone who has a sturdy build and can withstand all types of conditions. An "all-weather," kind of person.

The dialect I speak is the Urmia one.

The village that tallies the most votes via comments will receive some holiday cheer courtesy of Nineveh Rising.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DChESa6PLcZ/?igsh=ajRkdWw1YWUzNmZk

So I thought about this the other day, as you know lots of the gulf countries such as UAE, Kuwait & Saudi Arabia are globalizing to the world. Can we visit or would it be a form of betrayal? I know 2 months back here someone talked about boycotting Turkey as a country to visit for tourism, what about gulf countries?

The only countries I can think of that would be no problem for Assyrians to visit would be UAE, Kuwait (Maybe), Oman & Bahrain. I personnaly think Assyrians should avoid Qatar at all times as they do have a heavy track record of being a Salafi Powerhouse who have actively funded Al-Qaeda in Syria & private doners to ISIS in Iraq.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some help with learning to speak Assyrian. I can understand it, but I struggle with speaking. I went to Iraq for the first time last year and felt really embarrassed about not being able to communicate well. I want to become fluent, do you have any tips??

Intermarriage is not the boogeyman.

This issue is one that is a hot topic in our community and on this subreddit. I understand the emotions around it. People feel like the best way to preserve our culture is by marrying other Assyrians and that argument has some weight to it.

The fact of the matter is that there will continue to be a rise in Assyrians marrying non-Assyrians as most of us live in the diaspora. You cannot force people to marry only Assyrians. We’re not back in the village. People are not animals to breed, they are human beings. What more, someone being of mixed heritage doesn’t mean they also can’t be Assyrian. Intermarriage is a beautiful thing and should be celebrated more. It draws in people from different backgrounds and shows the power of love. It’s healthy for societies.

The problem isn’t necessarily intermarriage. The problem, first and foremost, is the lack of wide-scale, broader collective institutions that can pass down the culture to our youth. Fact of the matter is that most Assyrian youth nowadays are just as assimilated as white American/European youth. There are more issues that are definitely a factor in people marrying out but I’ll leave it at this.

FYI NESTORIAN IS A MISNOMER

For those of you who do not know Dr. Asahel Grant was an American missionary and Doctor who traveled to northern Beth Nahrain "Mesopotamia" and Hakkari with accounts of our people, especially the Tyari and Tkhuma.

"My Koordish cavass from the chief at Akra was still with me ; but he was very reluctant to proceed, lest he should fall into the hands of some of the independent Nestorians, who are represented as a most formidable race of people. They are regarded as almost invincible, and are represented as having the power of vanquishing their enemies by some magical spell in their looks." Page 49.

I am Assyrian and Assyrian only. Im not Assyrian Chaldean or Assyrian Syriac or any of those combinations.

Assyrians are Assyrian. Period. There is no being both. Its time for this nonsense to stop, choose what you are and stick with it stop trying to commingle.

I have to add this. Most of your arguments are that they are church names. While this may have been true centuries ago it is now an ethnic name.

I belong to the Ancient church of the east, do I identify as an ANCIENTIAN? No, we all identify as Assyrian because that's what we are not because our church told us that.

Hello everyone i’m wondering if anyone knows about the history of Akre in Iraq, i’m only half Assyrian so my knowledge and connection to the language and culture is not that great. My Assyrian side of the family comes from Akre but when I search it up it seems to be mostly Kurdish and I can’t really find any trace of Assyrian history on google so i’m curious to know why that’s the case. If anyone can help me that would be greatly appreciated as I would love to know where I come from.

Are the Suryoyo, Chaldean and Hakkari Assyrians culturally identical or are there differences? I have my own opinion based on interactions with other Assyrians though not going to mention that here.

Hi all! I traveled to Tur Abdin over the summer and we stopped in Mor Bosus and Azakh. The caretaker of Mor Bosus Church told us the story of the Defense of Azakh as it relates to the icon of The Virgin of Azakh. Images of her were in both Mor Bosus and the Church of the Virgin Mary in Azakh. Unfortunately I couldn't understand all of the story, so I'm looking to see if anyone else has heard this story.

From what I understood, during the Sayfo troops destroyed the village of Mor Bosus whose residents fled to Azakh (thus the connection). But the village of Azakh defended itself against the Turks and Kurds. What I'm most interested in is the story that went something like someone blew a horn, which sounded like artillery fire, thus intimidating the attackers. Somehow the Virgin Mary ties into the story too (maybe he had prayed to her, or had a vision of her?). The icon itself is beautiful, showing Mary standing above the city with a rifle burning beneath her feet.

https://syriacpress.com/blog/2024/11/14/syriac-letters-monument-inaugurated-in-entrance-of-baghdede-in-nineveh-governorate-iraq/

I’m an Assyrian born in Australia, I was never raised speaking Assyrian and only heard it spoken. I later ended up learning arabic to a high level and can communicate very comfortably in it, and considering the Assyrian language basically has the same system as the arabic system as they are Semitic languages, learning Assyrian wouldn’t be difficult at all.

My parents and relatives all wish I learn Assyrian as they say arabic is for the arabs and Assyrian is for the Assyrian, and I do agree with this notion of thinking. But I come across a few problems with Assyrian, firstly I’m an Atheist and not interested in the bible or reading religious prayer books. The Assyrian language is “weak”, meaning you couldn’t speak Assyrian without needing a 2nd language for words not existing in it, like greek, arabic or English. For example, lets say I’m depressed and wish to express to my parents or friends about my depression, there is no word for depression in Assyrian and I would have to either use the arabic word for it, English or greek. I personally don’t feel like learning Assyrian is a good use of my time considering one could never express their ideas and thoughts fully in Assyrian.

I might as well just speak english or arabic if i want to be accurate and precise with my words.

Thoughts?

I’m a 23 guy born and raised as a Iraqi arab shia muslim in baghdad both of my parents are arab shia muslims.

I did a dna test a few months ago and was surprised by the results it said that i was only 24% peninsular arab 11% levant and around 60% mesopotamian which it said was from baghdad and nineveh governorate.

Although i don’t know if any of my ancestors migrated from nineveh both of my parents and grandparents were born in baghdad.

I became an atheist a few years ago and this dna test has caused a big identity crisis for me i spoke with my parents about and my dad got angry insisting that we’re 100% genetically arab.

From looking at other iraq arab dna results on reddit it looks like i’m not the only arab that this happened to. I consider myself to be an iraqi nationalist politically i would like to learn the Aramaic language in the future.

I’m just looking for advice from you guys considering that it seems a decent number of iraqi “arab” have had this discovery recently because of dna tests and are confused about their identity.

Lastly I’m really sorry for all that has happened to the iraqi assyrian and chaldean communities recently and in the past and i hope you guys will one day return to iraq and live safely.

Those Little Scraps of Paper Are Sacred: What Should We Do with Our Unfinished Research?

A JewishGen Jonina Duker < Jonina dot Duker at juno dot com > 23 May 1999 / 8 Sivan 5759

"In terms of both what happens to unpublished research and what would happen if all of us finally wrote our books and approached the institutions above in droves (please see the JewishGen InfoFile "Reversing The Paper Trail" for institutions where one might place published research.) I've been mulling over something .... To me all these scraps of paper with notes that look like garbage to everyone else, are really sacred pieces of paper and should be preserved the way Jews have traditionally preserved precious documents in a genizah. Two telling examples: a few years ago without JewishGen or before the formerly Soviet Archives opened up who could envision today's opportunities? Who knows what the future holds? That is why the little scraps of paper with notes about conversations with relatives who have died should be saved until someone, eventually, can fit them in. Too many of us are already moaning about the links that were lost when someone died and papers weren't saved"

"If we begin treating those little pieces of paper and the mission of reconnecting the C'lal Yisroel, the Jewish people, as sacred maybe others will be persuaded as well. There is an analogy that occurred to me in connection with this that I know not every one would appreciate; however, it's worth a try. All my life I have had long hair but was never able to grow it as long as I liked. I thought that my lifetime experience had shown me my hair's lifetime limit. And then, well into adulthood, I came across a salon that specialized in long hair. One of the most important things they taught me was to stop treating the strands of hair like hair, and to begin treating it like old lace. So I did, and it worked. My hair grew much longer than had ever seemed possible. So, if we Jewish genealogists begin treating those little scraps of paper -- and what they represent -- as sacred maybe the rest of mishpochah will as well"

"I've been trying to get brave enough to formulate publicly an eleventh commandment of Jewish genealogy to add to the ten of Rabbi Malcolm Stern z'l'. Well, here goes:

"Thou shalt affirmatively, explicitly, and in writing ensure that all thy research, published and unpublished, even unto the tiniest scrap of paper, survives you. Thou shalt not put thy relatives in the uncomfortable position of having to rebuke you by reminding you of this positive obligation (mitzvah). "

I've been thinking about the idea of a Jewish Genealogical Archive where people could leave ALL of their papers in a way that would ensure relatives' access, protect privacy, etc. In that way those of us that find cousins through email and know them only that way don't have to worry as much about what is going to happen to that cousin's treasure trove eventually. (It's far too touchy to bring it up through email with someone one has never met -- even for me who has already "lost" an enormous treasure trove of genealogical information collected by a professional Jewish historian uncle ... the papers "should" have come to me and were thrown out instead.) In that way those of us whose children aren't interested can ensure that papers aren't thrown out so grandchildren or great-grandchildren or nieces or nephews are given a chance. Let's make sure the baton is still there when someone comes along ready and eager to pick it up and run with it. It is easier to think of how it would work than to figure out who might want to fund it. I've gone on long enough -- I can get really worked up about the way Jewish families have been torn apart throughout history and how we finally have a chance to put some pieces back together with a limited window of opportunity ... if anyone has ideas about what foundation or grant-making body to approach with the idea of the Jewish Genealogical Archive please let me know. Happy hunting, secure saving, and may all of you go from strength to strength. And may some of you be my cousins! L'Shalom.

Vocabulary: o C'lal Yisroel: Hebrew, the entirety of the Jewish people o genizah: Hebrew, a hiding place or storage room, usually part of a synagogue, for worn-out sacred books, ritual objects, or anything with the name of G-d written out o L'Shalom: Hebrew, toward peace o mishpochah: Hebrew, extended family, clan o mitzvah: Hebrew, Jewish religious obligation legally devolving upon adults (many a mitzvah is a good deed which occasions the looser translation), in this case there is an attempt to make an implicit link to the mitzvah of not putting a stumbling block before the blind from which various laws about how to behave and when one should rebuke are derived o z'l': Hebrew, contraction of the phrase (zichrono/zichronah l'bracha) may his/her memory be for a blessing, of blessed memory

Taibel bas Ruchel Leah v' Shlomo Yehoshuah, also known as Jonina Duker, has spoken and taught for the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, and represented the Society on the Jewish Community Council.

11Jun99jd]bik Copyright 1999 JewishGen Inc. http://www.jewishgen.org

My paternal Assyrian Great-Grandmother’s Legacy: Faith, Family, and the Irony of Identity

When I think about my great-grandmother I feel this deep connection to her resilience and everything she went through. She was only 12 when she married not to a boy her own age but, as was common then to an older Assyrian man. The irony here is hard to miss. These marriages weren’t a choice made out of love they were out of necessity. My family always said that marriages like hers happened young because, back then, it was the only way to protect Assyrian Christian girls from the risk of being kidnapped by mushalam neighbors of different ethnic and religious sect backgrounds.

But if my paternal great-grandmother had her way, she wouldn’t have married at all Her true calling she once told my mother was to be a missionary, to spread the ✝️☦️Christian gospel. & in a way, she lived that mission. She used the money my great-grandfather sent from his work as a chef for king in Saudi Arabia . That money helped her to start an Assyrian school in Lebanon pouring her heart into that school and her work with the church. That was her life’s purpose her way to pass down faith and heritage to others.

Yet, as she grew older there was 1 thing she told my mother that really hurt her. She wished her children had embraced their Assyrian roots. But they turned out so differently from what she had hoped. They felt disconnected maybe even uninterested /hated being called Assyrian. They chose to speak 🇱🇧 Arabic over our Assyrian language identifying so strongly as Lebanese that they passed this identity on to their children and grandchildren. To this day some of my cousins truly believe they are ethnically Lebanese and refused to do a DNA test. But we’re not. We are Assyrians—pure Assyrians, going back generation upon generation. My great-grandmother’s hope was that we would carry this identity forward but that connection somehow faded with her own children.

And here I am now feeling both sides of this story. I feel her mission calling to me a pull to honor our Assyrian roots, our faith, & everything she worked so hard for. & I also feel the weight of my nana choice to focus entirely on her family, giving the closeness she felt was missing from her own life. It’s a strange irony 2 generations, 2 different sacrifices & now I’m here trying to piece together the legacy they left behind.

For anyone who feels this pull of heritage, of reconnecting with roots that might have faded, may we carry forward what our ancestors hoped for. Let’s keep our culture alive, speak our mother tongue, and remember those who came before us—even when the journey is complicated.

I am member of Jewish Gen since my maternal great-great grandmother was Russian Jewish ✡️🇷🇺 I have distant cousins still in 🇷🇺 I have not connected with because Idk i dont wanna bother them . But tbh I found this poem so inspiring & I hope it inspires other Assyrians when they're doing their own research on their family lineage and heritage ❤️🙏 hamzen suret

Hi all, have you ever seen other spellings of Nineveh, such as Ninveh, Ninwe, etc? What’s the reason for that?