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Assyrian Cultural Foundation

The Assyrian Cultural Foundation (formerly known as AUAF) is a non-profit organization inspired by Assyrian heritage, serving as a bridge between traditions and different generations in the hopes of building a stronger, more connected community through our various programs.

YouTube Video VVVCZS1iREN2dEZLZEdQWm9RV2xjZUFRLnhfRE5HWHNQaElJ

0:00 Intro
1:03 Introductions
1:39 Modern “heroes”
5:31 Nation changes
8:07 Older literature
11:26 Early Assyrianism
12:58 Zionism comparison
14:13 Nationalism theory
15:43 Ancient nations debate
16:52 Continuity argument
19:42 Discontinuity view
25:21 “Chaldean” term
27:06 Unity emphasis
31:42 Millet to nation
36:49 Paris disappointment
40:48 William Daniel reshapes
42:15 John Alkhas pride
46:42 Hannibal critique
48:27 Key takeaways

In this lecture, Rabi Robert DeKelaita explores how modern Assyrian writers and thinkers “rewrote” history to strengthen national consciousness and unity. The discussion traces the shift from primarily religious self-identification (Suraya as “Christian”) toward a modern national framework, shaped by wider 19th–20th century currents of nationalism. Using examples from major Assyrian poets, storytellers, and intellectuals, the lecture examines how symbols, language, collective memory, and ancient heritage were reimagined to build legitimacy, pride, and cohesion across denominational lines.

0:00 Intro
0:12 Imagined Assyria: nation without a state
0:56 Are Assyrians “a nation” if there’s no state?
1:29 Iraq’s classifications: “minority” vs “nationality”
2:54 The real question: perseverance without sovereignty
4:29 Statehood vs strengthening peoplehood
5:30 Diaspora reality: homeland minority, global majority
6:11 1919–1933: political bids and the Simele tragedy
8:07 2003–2025: Nineveh Plain politics and Article 125
11:11 Exile as culture: literature, song, and “wandering”
15:31 Ethical frame: homeland, neighbors, and Christian duty
18:37 What a state does that a community can’t
31:16 Other diasporas: comparisons and outcomes
32:08 Benedict Anderson: imagined communities applied
33:27 Harari on “imaginary stories” and sacred space
38:46 Modern glue: media, dialect bridges, symbols, museums
43:04 Can there be a nation without a state?
51:03 Assyrianism: the ideology that sustains continuity

In Class 21 of The Story of Assyria, we explore “Imagined Assyria: The Making of a Nation Without a State” and ask a hard modern question: can Assyrians remain a nation without territory, sovereignty, or a state apparatus?

Using Benedict Anderson’s theory of Imagined Communities, we examine how shared narrative, memory, symbols, language, institutions, and media can produce real national belonging across distance and diaspora.

We also compare the powers of a state (coercion, borders, bureaucracy, citizenship, education, legitimacy) with what a dispersed community can and cannot do, and reflect on how exile reshaped Assyrian culture through literature, music, trauma remembrance, and modern transnational cultural life.

Last year, we reignited a flame that had long burned in our collective memory. This year, the Assyrian Renaissance Cultural Celebration returns to illuminate our heritage once more through powerful art exhibitions, stirring musical performances, and thought-provoking academic lectures.

Join us for a weekend where our shared identity takes center stage.

April 17,18,19, 2026

At Hyatt Regency Chicago

Stay in touch for more information.

#AssyrianRenaissance #CulturalCelebration #ACFChicago #AssyrianEvents #ARCC26

#20 The Story of Assyria: Iraqi Nationalism and Assyria

In Class 20 of The Story of Assyria, Rabi Robert DeKelaita explores Kurdish nationalism and its impact on Assyrian history, identity, and cultural heritage, joined by Sarah Gawo and Pierre Younan. The discussion opens with a frank exchange on whether Assyrians and Kurds can ever share a common historical narrative, then moves into how nationalism reshapes claims to land, ancestry, and “who belongs” in northern Mesopotamia.

A major case study is Erbil (Arbela) and the way its ancient and Christian Assyrian past is sometimes reframed as merely one “layer” among many. The lecture also touches on Kurdish linguistic diversity, disputed territories in Iraq, regional geopolitics, and why heritage language and historical continuity matter for Assyrians today.

0:00 Welcome and topic Kurdish nationalism and Assyria
1:11 Opening questions for Sarah and Pierre
1:33 Sarah Kurds as “villains” in Assyrian memory
2:22 WWI and postwar tensions land religion politics
3:07 Cooperation examples and Kurdish autonomy context
4:39 Patriarchal seat and hope for coexistence
6:13 Pierre can history be agreed on
7:01 Kosovo analogy competing national histories
7:45 Assyrian indigeneity claim and Kurdish counterclaims
10:07 Kurdish flag painted on Assyrian ruins reaction
12:12 Who are the Kurds origins and identity
13:36 Migration theories and tribal layers
15:15 Ancient origin claims Gutians Medes critique
15:54 Kurdish dialect groups map overview
16:48 Population estimates range and politics of numbers
18:44 Assyria not only ancient also Christian continuity
19:05 Kurdistan Region Iraq provinces and disputed areas
21:14 Peshmerga and Western support
21:28 Israel KRG relationship background
23:06 “Kurdish Jews” and Aramaic connection
25:18 What Kurdish leaders want autonomy within states
26:44 KRG as de facto state argument
28:16 Kurdish historical project and “Median era”
30:50 Case study Erbil citadel reframed as “layers”
31:31 Chaldean News quote list of “civilizations” critique
34:39 Ankawa image and cultural continuity note
35:11 “Cradle of heritage” rhetoric and avoiding “Assyrian”
36:20 Erbil history in Assyrian and early Christian sources
36:45 Chronicle of Arbela overview and debate
40:03 Manuscript questions Alphonse Mingana discussion
42:26 Archaeology Middle Assyrian evidence in Erbil
44:30 Alexander battle near Arbela 331 BC
44:50 Church of the East Arbela as a center
45:16 Crone and Cook on Assyrian self identification
47:02 Continuity monotheism Judaism to Christianity
49:21 Kurdish nationalist framing of Erbil today
50:14 Proto Kurd claims Gutians Medes etc
51:01 “Assyrian layer” presentation in citadel narrative
52:57 Kurdification of names and geography
53:18 Ending note Mar Awa return and cathedral hope
54:29 Hope for coexistence and cultural survival

Duration: June 26th – December 18th
Day: Every Thursday
Time: 7:00 PM (CST)
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free of charge
Taught by: Rabi Robert DeKelaita, History Instructor
Moderated by: Sarah Gawo & Pierre Younan

#Assyrian #AssyrianHistory #TheStoryofAssyria #AssyrianHistoryClass

In Class 19 of The Story of Assyria, we examine how Iraqi nationalism has defined Iraq’s identity while often treating modern Assyrians as separate from ancient Assyria. The discussion covers the British mandate and the creation of the Iraqi state, competing nationalist frameworks, Assyrian political demands after World War I, rising hostility in the early kingdom period, the Simele massacre of 1933, and how later regimes including the Ba’ath Party and Saddam Hussein used Mesopotamian symbolism while remaining suspicious of Assyrian political identity. We close by distinguishing Assyrian nationalism from Assyrianism as a social and cultural movement grounded in historical continuity.

0:00 Welcome and topic Iraqi nationalism and Assyria
1:03 Check in from Gaznik Botan and Hakkari region
1:55 How Iraq understands Assyrians as a people
2:48 Did Assyrians have recognized native status in Iraq
4:45 Simele massacre referenced as turning point
6:06 Early Iraqi leadership and the question of native claims
8:27 Pierre pushback national building and who buys in
10:48 Ancient Assyria as heritage modern Assyrians as separate
11:44 Cultural continuity vs legal ownership of heritage
15:13 Law limits and the continuity argument
17:53 What is Iraq Ottoman legacy and British creation
18:31 Two forms of Iraqi nationalism inclusive vs Arab focused
21:14 Ba’ath period and shift toward Mesopotamian framing
22:10 Ottoman Safavid struggle and the three provinces
23:18 British conquest Basra Baghdad Mosul
24:38 Pre World War I maps Assyrian regions and peoples
25:54 Hashemite kingdom and League of Nations admission
28:48 Anglo Iraqi treaty and oil exploitation context
30:17 Post war Assyrian demands and Mar Shimun leadership
33:08 Iraqi state frames Assyrians as denominations not a nation
34:54 Internal Assyrian debates Malik Khoshaba and others
37:44 British play both sides and rising Iraqi hostility
39:13 June 28 1933 parliament rhetoric against Assyrians
42:08 Simele 1933 massacre and British complicity discussion
43:41 R S Stafford quote on using the army
45:00 After Simele nationalism underground 1945 petition
46:44 Saddam and Mesopotamian nationalism strategy
48:51 Regime suspicion of Assyrians in leaked documents
50:47 Civilization contested ancient Iraqis versus Assyrians
51:09 Assyrian Democratic Movement 1979 goals
52:02 Nineveh and Mosul geography and demographic change
55:00 Assyrianism as cultural movement not state nationalism

Class 18 examines the encounter between American Protestant missionaries and the Assyrians of Urmia in the 19th century. Focusing on the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the lecture explores education, printing, medicine, religious division, and the unintended rise of modern Assyrian national consciousness. A critical look at reform, fragmentation, and the long-term cultural and political consequences of Western missionary influence on the Assyrian people.

0:00 Introduction
1:29 East–West encounter
2:12 One Assyrian people
3:16 Americans arrive
3:28 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
4:14 Missionary methods
5:04 Church of the East missions
6:38 Protestant worldview
8:40 Orientalist attitudes
10:49 Education reforms
11:22 Printing press
13:00 Religious division
13:58 Christian rivalries
14:33 Indirect Muslim engagement
15:11 Medical modernization
16:10 Political impact
17:17 New Assyrian elites
18:33 Double-edged legacy
19:52 Educational revolution
22:07 Bible translation
23:28 Print culture
24:12 Church conditions
25:41 Medical schools
26:10 National awareness
27:58 Millet to nation
32:31 Print capitalism
38:25 Diaspora legacy
41:04 Comparative encounters
44:54 Final conclusions

In Class 17 of The Story of Assyria, we examine the question “Whose Assyria Is It?” by exploring how Assyrian history has been constructed, contested, and appropriated by states, scholars, and institutions. The lecture analyzes Western academia, Middle Eastern nationalism, archaeology, museums, and colonial legacies, while emphasizing Assyrian continuity, indigeneity, and the responsibility of Assyrians to study and defend their own history.

0:00 Welcome and topic
0:39 Assyriology conference in Baghdad mention
2:43 Who tells Assyrian history today
4:33 Pierre modern borders and staying vocal
7:25 Assyrians’ duty to learn their history
10:49 Who produces our history teaser
11:21 Layard era digs Assyrians excavating lamassu
13:24 ISAC Oriental Institute Dur Sharrukin artifacts abroad
15:26 What is a national story definition
17:06 19th-century excavations biblical orientalist framing
19:58 Modern states nationalize Assyria Iraq Turkey Syria KRG
21:36 Continuity debate Suraya Athuraya Syriac framing
23:45 Assyriology specialization ignores modern Assyrians
26:27 Sykes Picot borders crossed Assyrians
30:21 Nationalism theory symbols myths and memory
34:05 Who creates narratives state elites grassroots outsiders
39:25 Arab nationalist reframing Sati al Husri Baath
45:07 Can Iraq claim Assyria and the limits
48:14 Arabization pressure and Assyrian Democratic Movement
54:16 Comparisons North Macedonia Egypt Turkey Tibet Iran
59:17 Recap national stories contested
1:03:07 Closing responsibility to learn protect heritage

In this lecture, Rabi Robert DeKelaita explores one of the most complex questions facing modern Assyrians: who truly owns the heritage of ancient Assyria?

Through legal cases, historical examples, moral arguments, and modern museum policy, we examine how artifacts left by ancient Assyria, who controls them today, and what possibilities exist for the future.

0:12 Artifact ownership scenario
1:56 Sarah argues for museums
6:19 Pierre argues for Assyrians
9:45 Who is “us”?
11:49 Academic vs religious view
14:07 Hobby Lobby case
18:59 Return to Iraq
21:11 Iraqi Jewish manuscripts
24:33 Who owns the archives?
25:23 Rubin v. Iran
28:10 Colonial excavations
31:15 ISIS destruction
32:25 No legal standing
34:35 Moral claims & partnerships
35:57 Assyrian identity in museums
37:15 Future path for Assyrians

Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate the art of George Shamoun! As the artist said himself: “You came with your hearts before your footsteps; you are the water that flows into the cracks of thirst. Peace be upon you as long as there is a soul calling out in art.”

If you are interested in visiting the exhibition, please email finearts@acf-us..org to book a tour.

Artworks are still available for purchase, and the collection will remain on display until March 1st. This collection is an expression of reverence for the history and beauty of the Assyrian community, and we are honored to share it with all of you.

#Assyrian #AssyrianArt #AssyrianArtists #GeorgeShamoun #ArtExhibition #AssyrianCulturalFoundation #ACFchicago

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Assyrian Cultural Foundation

The Assyrian Cultural Foundation (ACF) is a non-profit organization inspired by Assyrian heritage, serving as a bridge between traditions and different generations in the hopes of building a stronger, more connected community through our various programs.

Hours

Mon–Fri: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Sat: Closed Saturdays
Sun: Closed Sundays

Support our Fine Arts Program by purchasing artwork using our Fine Art America link. Click Here

Visit Us

Assyrian Cultural Foundation
4343 W. Touhy Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712

Contact Us

Telephone: (773) 274-9262
Fax: (224)251-7620

General: General@acf-us.org

Art: Finearts@acf-us.org

Music: Music@acf-us.org

Tutoring: Tutoring@acf-us.org

Homecare-CCP-E-mail: info@homecare-aid.com

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