Assyrian Sculptor Fred Parhad to be Honored at Mesopotamian Night

It is our pleasure to announce that Mr. Fred Parhad, the renowned Assyrian sculptor, will be honored at the 7^th annual Mesopotamian Night.  The event will be held in San Jose on June 21, 2014, at the California Theatre.  At the event, Mr. Parhad will receive the honor of “Raab Amneh” (Master of Arts). In addition, Mr. Parhad will be offering one of his works to be auctioned off at the live auction where the proceeds will go directly to support the efforts of the Assyrian Aid Society of America.  There will also be a showcase of Mr. Parhad's works in the lobby that evening.  We look forward to seeing you there . . .

Below is a biography of Mr. Parhad.

Fred Parhad is a self-taught sculptor with over 35 years of professional dedication to his work. From the start he chose to approach the art world in the only way he believed could produce satisfactory results; he challenged himself to learn by doing. In 1976 he moved to New York and for the next four years worked in foundries to learn the techniques and traditions of a craft well over five thousand years old.

Eager to study from the best instructors history had to offer he spent the hours away from the foundry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where, on an initial visit to see his beloved French Impressionists, he walked through the Near Eastern Galleries and saw, for the first time, the collection of magnificent Assyrian and Babylonian art. The Impressionists would have to wait. He received permission from the administration to copy, in clay, the “Lion of Ishtar” , which was to be the first of over thirty Assyrian/Babylonian art pieces he would copy, which served as his teachers.

Beginning in 1978, and on his mother Bella Parhad's advice, he presented his bronze and glazed ceramic sculptures at annual Assyrian conventions around the country. In 1983 Fred began work on a bronze monument of Ashurbanipal, installed in San Francisco's Civic Center, in 1988. This is the first Assyrian public monument placed anywhere in the world in the last 2500 years. A final site is being considered for his monument of Shumirum. In addition to Assyrian sculpture Fred has had a bronze portrait of Mark Twain installed at the Bancroft Library, at the University of California, Berkeley, which is the primary repository of the Twain papers. They are also publishers of the final and complete Twain Biography.

 Also this year he will complete eleven bronze portraits of the pioneers of the food and wine revolution in America of the 1970s, which includes Narsai M. David, Julia Child, Robert Mondavi and others. The collection will be installed at the entrance to Napa Valley College's Culinary Arts campus at St Helena, California.

Rabi Nebu Issabey to Receive Mesopotamian Achievement Award

(Rabi Nebu Issabey at younger age)

By Arbella Issabey

Rabi Nebu Issabey will be honored with the Mesopotamian Achievement Award at our 6th Annual event as “Raab-Musiqooreh (Master of Musicians) for his selfless and unconditional dedication to the advancement of Assyrian classical music. His masterpiece, composed in honor of the Assyrian Patriarch, Mar Benyamin Shimun, will be our feature presentation.

Nebu Juel Issabey, was born in Tabriz, Iran to Harriet and Juel Issabey. Nebu's father was a native of Urmia and a graduate of Sorbonne University in France. But it was Nebu's mother, a graduate of the American College in Tehran, who instilled the first tastes of music in Nebu. At age four, his mother began teaching him the violin and in the next few years he taught himself the piano.

With the foundation set by his mother and his innate talent, Nebu began studying with the great Italian violin virtuoso, Luigi Pazanari, and renowned French violinist, Tina Montofel. After 12 years of studying with Pazanari and Montofel, Nebu made his debut at the age of 26 and gave many violin recitals, playing the works of Beethoven, Brahms, and Sibelius, among many others. It was during this period that he won many highly coveted "Pazanari Prizes."
In 1955, Nebu went to Lausanne, Switzerland to begin his studies in conducting under the great Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet. Upon his return to Iran, Nebu organized the first Assyrian choral group in Tehran, Nineveh Choir. Although the group had started at about 30 members, by 1960 the choir had reached nearly 100 members. The Nineveh Choir gave many choral concerts in Abadan, Tehran, and Ahwaz, performing such well-known pieces as Bach's Motet No. 3, Handel's Messiah and Gabriel Foure's Requiem, as well as, Nebu's own nationalistic and romantic works.

It was these aforementioned pieces by western composers that earned Nebu and the Nineveh Choir great recognition by the Iranian Fine Arts Council. In 1966, the Council chose the Nineveh Choir as the leading choral group in the country. Nebu and his choir performed before the Shah of Iran, where Nebu was officially presented to His Majesty.

During the busy but successful years of the Nineveh Choir, Nebu still found time to devote to his nation. In 1961, Nebu organized choirs for both the Assyrian Church of the East and the Assyrian Catholic churches.

In 1967, Nebu returned to Europe and entered the Music Academy of Cologne, Germany for six years. Among his many professors was the well-known modern composer in Northern Europe, Joachim Blume, professor of piano and music theory, and Carl Kaufhold, professor of orchestration. Nebu was also influenced by Carl Orff, the great composer of Carmina Burana, as well as Boris Blacher, professor of modern composition, both at the Berlin Academy.

While in Europe, he performed his own works at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, including modern Assyrian as well as some Iranian music. His works were also performed on German radio and television. During this time, Nebu was known for his use of free dissonance, a combination of tones that create tension and an unforeseeable outcome. In fact, his short compositions for oboe and piano were fine examples of free dissonance and won him a medal by the Cologne Academy of Music.

In 1973, he left Cologne with his wife, Eglantin and daughter, Arbella, and was destined for Chicago, Illinois where he reestablished the Nineveh Choir in the same year with both old and new members. They gave quite a few concerts in various areas of Chicago and performed many of Nebu's pieces, notably, an aria from his opera, Semirames.

A year later, his younger daughter, Nineveh was born and a few years later, Nebu was reunited with his son Tiglat, who made it to the United States after a perilous trip from revolutionary Iran.

Nebu established the Schubert Northside Choir in 1978, which consisted of various neighbors from all walks of life. This choir had become a significant part of the local community of Sauganash in Chicago and was covered in several local papers and newsletters for their successful performances throughout Chicago. It was for his several years of community work and cultural awareness, both for Assyrians and Americans that Nebu was chosen as one of the Twelve Outstanding U.S. Citizens of 1979.

After spreading music in the Assyrian and American cultures of Chicago, he looked for new opportunities to build the awareness of Assyrian and Western classical music. His chance arrived when he and his family moved to California in 1985. During the first few years, Nebu was busy writing new compositions as well as bringing his youngest daughter, Nineveh, to the stage as a concert pianist. In 1987, Nineveh made her debut at the age of 13 with pieces by such composers as Chopin, Bach, Mozart and Schubert. Nebu's oldest daughter, Arbella, having made her debut at the age of 13 in Chicago as a concert blockflutist (recorder), was also giving recitals, many with her sister. Nebu's son Tiglat, a very talented musician, studied briefly with his father and stayed in Chicago to further his studies in music.
In 1995, Nebu was yearning for another choir and reestablished the Nineveh Choir with some old but mostly new members. Their first concert was in 1996 in San Jose and later in Los Angeles. The Nineveh Choir performed several times from 1997 to 2000, singing many of Nebu's works. However, it was Ghoom Ya Jvangha (Rise, O Young Assyrian), Ghooyama (Revolution), and Atouraya Khata (The New Assyrian) that mesmerized devoted listeners.  Further, the choral group was especially acclaimed for their performance of Lacrymosa (Crying), a piece from Nebu's requiem.

After a long hiatus, one of Nebu’s dreams came to fruition on a spring evening in 2008: To have a national choir that truly portrays the essence of our people; to have individuals from all walks of life, an array of age ranges, and various backgrounds; to have as many voices as possible.

Nebu had gathered members not only from San Jose but also from Los Angeles, Modesto, and Turlock. Old members and brand new members came together, this time on a grander scale. It was a year of very hard work from the director and the singers to bring to the Assyrian nation Nebu’s last concert. Traveling among these cities on an ongoing basis for a year, Nebu had claimed his dream. The Nineveh Choir had at long last evolved into the Assyrian National Choir, a body of nearly 50 amateur singers with a passion for their nation, as well as a passion for Nebu’s stirring music.

In recent years, Nebu had another dream: To have his composition, Roomraamaa, be recognized as the Assyrian National Anthem, unifying all Assyrians around the globe. You will be hearing the anthem tonight with a new arrangement by his son, Tiglat. It is a passionate piece of music that truly exemplifies the love the composer has for his people.

Nebu has always taken great pride in the abundant talent that abides in the Assyrian nation. His efforts over the past decades have had one goal in common: to promote our nation’s culture through the international language of music.

Rabi Homer Ashurian to Receive the Mesopotamian Achievement Award

Edited by Helen Talia

Homer Ashurian was born and raised in Urmia, Iran. He graduated with a Master Degree in Archeology, majoring in Assyriology from the University of Tehran. In 1958, he served as the Curator for Iranian Cultural Museum. From 1963, for several years thereafter, he served as the Principal of two High Schools in Tehran. He was a member of a five-dignitary committee who established the Assyrian Universal Alliance ("AUA") in 1968 in France.
During the 1970's, he served as editor of two illustrious Assyrian magazines, titled Kirkha (The Scroll) and Shvila (The Way), both published in Tehran, Iran.

In 1975, Homer Ashurian was elected as a Congressman to the Iranian Parliament to represent his Assyrian nation, until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In 1984, Homer Ashurian migrated to the United States, domiciling in Chicago with his two sons.

Shortly thereafter in 1987, he joined the Board of Directors of the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation (“AUAF”), where he is now the Chief Executive Officer of this organization.

This year, Rabi Homer Ashurian is the recipient of the Mesopotamian Achievement Award in activism with the title "Raab Avoodi/Raab A'woudeh" (Master of Activists) at the 6th Annual Mesopotamian Night.  This award is diligently due his tireless contributions to the advancement of the Assyrian cause, worldwide, in particular, his instrumental role in advancing the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation to become one of the largest and most prestigious grassroots Assyrian organizations in the United States.

Throughout his long and articulate career, Rabi Homer Ashurian has served in different capacities within various Assyrian organizations such as the Assyrian Youth Society of Urmia, Assyrian Youth Cultural Society of Tehran (Se'ta Sapreta), Assyrian Society of Tehran (Motva), Assyrian Universal Alliance, and lastly the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation.

The AUAF serves thousands of elderly people in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. It also houses the Ashurbanipal library, where research material in the Assyrian culture and heritage is widely available.  In addition, this organization has helped promote cultural and educational programs in the Chicagoland area; it has allocated and funded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds to post High School students.

Internationally, Homer Ashurian has advocated the importance of Assyrian education in motherland Iraq, and has, in turn, helped award the Assyrian Aid Society with two major grants from AUAF for the printing of Assyrian textbooks.  And most recently, he helped secure a grant to help fund the Mesopotamian Night project.

The Mesopotamian Night is honored and privileged to welcome Rabi Homer Ashurian as its special guest from Chicago.

Mesopotamian Literature Award (Raab-Sayoome)

Last year the Mesopotamian Night project inaugurated the Mesopotamian Award series, given to exceptional individuals who have made lifetime contributions to the advancement of Assyrian art, literature, philanthropy, poetry, etc. The first recipient of our Mesopotamian Arts Award (Raab-Amne) was Rabi Issa Benyamin.

It is our honor to announce that this year Rabi Daniel Dawid d'beit Benyamin is joining us to receive the Raab-Sayoome Award for his tireless effort in publishing The Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies over the past two decades and for his publications on poetry, history, and other subjects.

We look forward to seeing Rabi Daniel in Modesto on August 21st.
Rabi Daniel Dawid d’beit Benyamin
A Brief Profile

(a translation from an article in Assyrian published at http://www.meltha.dk/Daniel-interv-Assyr.pdf). The translation to English has been provided by William Warda).




Rabi Daniel Dawid d’beit Benyamin was born on August 23, 1927 in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. He was baptized that same year by His Beatitude Mar Avimalq Timatheus Metropolitan of Malabar and India.

Rabi Daniel’s father was Dawid Somo d’beit Benyamin (1888-1967), and his mother was Khanim Yosip d’beit Kelaita (1898-1974). His family included one sister (Yonia) and two brothers (Yoab and Aprim).

Rabi Daniel was the nephew of Shamasha Givargis of Ashita, the outstanding scribe, and of Mooshi Somo.

Daniel attended the school of Qashisha Pample? (American Missionary in the city of Mosul) where his uncle Shamasha Givargis taught. He would later attend the elementary school known as al-Fallah, where Malpana Yousip d’Kelaita was the instructor of the Assyrian language and teacher of the Christian faith.

Rabi Daniel’s father, Shamasha Dawid, was proficient in the classical Assyrian language and taught him daily at home from the Holy Books and their interpretation. Thus he inculcated in him the love for this language at an early age. From his infancy, Daniel was in constant daily worship at the evening prayers of the church (which took place in a room at the house of Qashisha Yousip d’Kelaita in Mosul).

Rabi Daniel concluded his formal education in 1948. By the end of that year he was employed by the Iraq Petroleum Company in Kirkuk. During this time, he earned a Lower Cambridge Certificate of English language at the Company School.

In 1954, his father along with his uncle Shamasha Givargis established the Nineveh Press by importing Assyrian language metal fonts from India. These fonts were manufactured under the direction of Shamasha Givargis when he instructed Indian priests and deacons in that country.

At the Nineveh Press, Daniel and his father printed several books including two theological works.
Three poems written by Daniel in the classical Assyrian Language were published in Gilgamesh magazine that was printed in Tehran, Iran, between 1952 -1961 by the brothers Addai and John Alkhas. He also enrolled 25 new subscribers for the magazine.

In 1957 Rabi Daniel was sent to England by the Iraq Petroleum Company where he earned a Certificate in Stores Administration.

After returning to Iraq he married Madeleine Geeso Tooma. They had three daughters and one son.

In addition to his full time job at the Iraq Petroleum Company, Daniel assumed the sole responsibility for running the printing shop once his father became too old to work.

In 1963 the Iraq Petroleum Company in Kirkuk promoted him to the position of Administrative Coordinator. At that time an American and Dutch consortium introduced computers in the Middle East, which made it possible for Daniel to learn about this new technology.

Following his father’s death in 1967, Daniel left Iraq and began a new career in Kuwait. In his absence, his uncle Shamasha Givargis moved the Nineveh Press to Baghdad where he and his nephew Yoab (Daniel’s younger brother) published several new books.

In 1981, Daniel traveled to Australia to visit his relatives and friends. Youaw Tooma Kanna, one of his close friends urged him to develop a typewriter in the Assyrian Language. After returning to Kuwait, Daniel designed the type faces of the Assyrian alphabet and traveled to Singapore to sign a contract with the Hermis company to have such a typewriter manufactured. However, due to the emergence of computer typesetting and laser printing, the plan to build the typewriter was abandoned.

When in 1983 the first computer system capable of desktop publishing arrived in Kuwait, Daniel set out to design Assyrian fonts that could be used by computer to typeset the Assyrian script. He succeeded in writing simple computer software in 1984 capable of accomplishing this task.

Rabi Daniel and his family relocated to the U.S. in 1988. They settled in Chicago, where he spent 3 years keyboarding into computer 70 issues of the Assyrian literary Magazine, Gilgamesh. In 1992, its 1014 pages were published as a book under the title; “Gilgamesh, Maghalta Sipraita Atouraita” (Gilgamesh, the Literary Assyrian Magazine).

In 1989 Dr. Edward Odisho of Chicago who was publishing the “Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society”, asked him to serve as editor in chief of the Assyrian section of this publication. At the time only two issues of this Journal had been published -- one in 1986 and the other in 1988. The Assyrian section in these two volumes consisted primarily of reprints of writings by Shamasha Givargis of Ashita and William Daniel. Each of these two issues consisted of less than 100 pages, with only a few of them featuring the Assyrian Language, while the bulk was printed in English. The Journal at that time had less than 50 subscribers. Since then it has been published twice a year, consisting of approximately 160 pages, and it has hundreds of subscribers. The Assyrian section editorial team of the Journal consists of highly skilled and accomplished writers whose works are a matter of pride to the readers of our language.

In 1993, Rabi Daniel was instrumental in creating a set of new Assyrian font system that is compatible with the True Type Fonts standards that function in the Microsoft Windows environment and related software. One of them, named “Assyrian”, is now in the format of “Unicode” and conforms with the latest technology. The rest of the fonts, including “Strangelo” will soon be available in Unicode format. They will then be available free of charge to anyone interested.

Daniel has published a considerable number of wonderful Assyrian articles and delightful poems in the Journal and in his book titled; “Memri w’Mooshkhati d’Daniel Dawid d’beit Benyamin” (Articles and poems of Daniel Dawid d’beit Benyamin”).

The determination of Rabi Daniel’s father to teach him reading and writing of the Classical Assyrian Language, and the writings of his uncle Shamash Givargis, instilled in him an abiding love for the Assyrian language and literature.

Rabi Daniel presently lives in the city of Phoenix, Arizona (USA), where he continues to be active in advancing his lifelong efforts.

Mesopotamian Achievement Awards in Arts and Literature

In recognition of the culturally gifted persons in our community who have worked ceaselessly to advance arts and literature, the AAS-Central Valley Chapter announces the Mesopotamian Achievement Awards in Arts and Literature. With these awards, we will honor men and women who have dedicated themselves to bringing our artistic and literary heritage forward.

Two awards will be presented in a ceremony as part of the Mesopotamian Night annual fund raiser concert 2009.

This year the award will be given as follows:

1. The Mesopotamian Arts Award (Raab-Amne) to be presented to Assyrian calligrapher and journalist Rabi Issa Benyamin.

2. The Mesopotamian Literature Award (Raab-Sayoomeh) to be presented to Assyrian writer, poet and publisher Rabi Daniel Benyamin.

A tribute to a living legend: Rabi Issa Benyamin

We are hoping Mesopotamian Night 2009 will be an occasion to honor Rabi Issa Benyamin, a living Assyrian legend among us. In the past two Mesopotamian Night concerts, while he has not been able to attend, he has been a gracious contributor by sending us beautiful pieces of calligraphy to auction. We are hoping he will be in good health snd will be able to join us this August. It is worth mentioning that Rabi Paulos Khofri and Rabi Assurhadoun Khorfi are Rabi Issa's first cousins.

We are presenting here an article contributed to this blog by the Assyrian scholar Eden Naby. Dr. Naby this year is joining us as an honorary committee member and a major sponsor of the Qateeni Opera.





We Honor Rabi Issa Benyamin because…

- He has dedicated a large portion of his life to promote Assyrian culture
- He has been instrumental in promoting, throughout the world, calligraphy in the Assyrian Aramaic language,
- He worked to restart Assyrian journalism among Assyrians in Iran after the genocide had dealt a grievous wound to a culture with the oldest tradition of periodical publication in all of Iran.
- He has created beautiful art works that give new life to our written word, the oldest continuous written and spoken language of the Middle East.

His Life

Rabi Issa now lives in Illinois (USA) but he was born in Tabriz (Iran) to a family originally from Salamas. In 1924, the year of his birth, Mirza Benyamin Kaldani (1879-1966) and his wife Esther were still refugees in Tabriz, waiting, like thousands of other Assyrians from Urmiah and Salamas to return to the towns and villages they had been forced to abandon between 1914 and 1918. Only one-third of the Assyrians living in the string of settlements stretching westward from Urmiah to Urfa (Edessa), survived the attacks by Kurds, Turks, and Azeris. Less than half that portion were ever allowed to return to reclaim their homes. The others entered the diaspora in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, many parts of the Middle East, Europe, South and Central America, the US, Cananda, and then Australia and New Zealand. The pattern of persecution of Christians in the Middle East continues and adds to Assyrian refugees especially from Iraq.

Returning to Urmiah, Mirza Benyamin continued his activities in Assyrian cultural circles, working closely with Mar Havel Zaya (1892-1950), the Archbishop of Urmiah and Salamas. Rabi Issa’s love of his mother language gained encouragement from Mar Zaya, his mentor and teacher from the age of seventeen.

As he built his professional life and started a family, Rabi Issa worked as a math teacher, and later as a human resources administrator at the Iranian environmental ministry in Tehran. He married Clara Manassarians of a leading family in Golpashan, and they raised a son, Ramsin and a daughter, Ramica, both of whom have played key roles in promoting their father’s journalism work and his calligraphy.

Journalism Avocation

The long tradition of Assyrian journalism, beginning with Zahrira d-bahra (Rays of Light 1849-1918) died out when two-thirds of Assyrians died. The genocide reduced a community that had had the highest literacy rate in Iran (men and women) to one that had trouble mustering the resources to publish any periodicals. Their presses had been stolen and their trained printers, journalists and editors scattered and killed. The first Assyrian printing appeared as a mimeographed calendar meticulously hand written by Rabi Issa in 1948. Surgada Umtanaya (national calendar) started Rabi Issa on the road to journalism. He, together with friends such as Rabi Kooresh Benyamin (no relation) worked on Datid Barana (A rosy future) in 1951, and then Ishtar, a publication that battled mightily to preserve ethnic and religious rights in Iran on the eve of the consolidation of the Islamic Republic in Iran. Rabi Issa was the Assyrian language editor of this weekly Assyrian-Persian publication: Majlis representative Dr. Sargon Bet Oshana (1927-1988) was its licensed publisher from 1981 to 1983 when his arrest on political charges brought an end to this fascinating documentation at a key turning point of Assyrian and Iranian history. (For more about the role of Ishtar and its editors in Assyrian life, see Ishtar: Documenting The Crisis In The Assyrian Iranian Community.)

The Calligrapher

Rabi Issa’s most artistic contribution to Assyrian culture lies in the field of calligraphy. Some of the most beautiful and creative tableaus of our words and alphabet have flowed from his pens - on paper and on leather. Many exemplars may be seen in the book Assyrian Calligraphy but others are in private homes such as that of his niece, the operatic singer, Marganita Vogt-Khofri of Zurich.

Words take shape, in the hands of this master, to suit their meaning so that they may inspire us to action: khuyada (unity), or teach us to avoid their curse: pulaqa (divisiveness). In another creative use of Assyrian calligraphy Rabi Issa enfolds the letters of a person’s name to form an inspiring shape suited to that person’s contribution to Assyrian culture. Arian Ishaya, Rosie Malek-Yonan, among others have been honored with such personalized calligraphy.

One of the most enduring ways in which Rabi Issa has promoted Assyrian calligraphy is through the poster in which he represents all our letters and through the book, The Assyrian Alphabet Manual, in which he shows where to begin each letter when writing cursively. His development to fifty-two fonts for our alphabet will inspire future generations through digital reproduction. More about Rabi Issa and his calligraphic work may be found at http://www.calligram.com/

Anyone who has seen the calligraphy of this great artist will know why has been honored with awards in Paris, Tehran, Chicago, San Jose and why his work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC.