George Anton Kiraz ( syr, ܓܘܪܓܝ ܒܪ ܐܢܛܘܢ ܕܒܝܬ ܟܝܪܐܙ; born 1965) is a Syriac engineer and entrepreneur, best known for his contribution to modern Syriac studies.

Biography

George Kiraz was born in

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

to a Syriac Orthodox merchant family which traces its roots back to

Elazığ Elazığ () is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, and the administrative centre of Elazığ Province and Elazığ District. It is located in the uppermost Euphrates valley. The plain on which the city extends has an altitude of . El ...

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. He learned

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

Monastery of Saint Mark, Jerusalem The Syriac Orthodox Monastery of Saint Mark ( syr, ܕܰܝܪܳܐ ܕܡܳܪܝ̱ ܡܰܪܩܽܘܣ ܕܣܽܘܪ̈ܳܝܝܶܐ, romanized: Dayrā dMār Marqus dSūrāyē) is a Syriac Orthodox monastery and church in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to a ...

. In 1983 he emigrated with his family to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where they settled in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He holds numerous degrees including a B.Sc. degree in Engineering from

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

in 1990, a master's degree in Syriac Studies from

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1991, a master's degree in computer speech and

language processing Language processing refers to the way humans use words to communicate ideas and feelings, and how such communications are processed and understood. Language processing is considered to be a uniquely human ability that is not produced with the sa ...

, and a Ph.D. degree in

computational linguistics Computational linguistics is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, comput ...

from

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1992 and 1996 respectively. In 1986, he designed the first computer fonts for Syriac and established a one-person company in Los Angeles named Alaph Beth Computer Systems for their distribution. He developed the proposal for encoding Syriac in Unicode (with Paul Nelson and Sargon Hasso) and designed the Unicode compliant Meltho fonts which enable Syriac computing on modern computers. His fonts are by far the most popular Computer Syriac fonts used in modern days. He has been involved in Syriac related projects such as the co-founding of

Gorgias Press Gorgias Press is an independent academic publisher specializing in the history and religion of the Middle East and the larger pre-modern world. History Founded in 2001 by Christine and George Kiraz, the press is based in Piscataway, New Jers ...

, a publishing house dedicated to Syriac studies and other subjects in the humanities, and directing the institute of Beth Mardutho, which seeks to promote Syriac heritage and language. Between 1996 and 2000, he worked at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

as a member of technical staff in the Language Modeling Group. Between 2000 and 2001 he was instrumental in opening an office for Nuance Communications on Wall Street, New York. His research interests include finite-state technology, computational morphology and phonology, and Syriac studies. He is married to Christine Kiraz. They live with their three children in

Piscataway, New Jersey Piscataway () is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 56,044, an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) fr ...

Bibliography

Kiraz has published a number of books about the

Syriac language The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...

, and co-authored many others: *The Syriac primer: reading, writing, vocabulary & grammar: with exercises and cassette activities, 1988. *Computer-Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament, six volumes, 1993. *Lexical tools to the Syriac New Testament, 1994. *Anton Kiraz's archive on the Dead Sea scrolls, 2005. *The new Syriac primer: an introduction to the Syriac language with a CD, 2007. *Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels: Aligning the Old Syriac (Sinaiticus, Curetonianus), Peshitta and Harklean Versions, 2003. *The acts of Saint George and the story of his father: from the Syriac and Garshuni versions, 2009. *Introduction to Syriac Spirantization, Rukkâkâ and Quššâyâ (Losser, The Netherlands: Bar Hebraeus Verlag, 1995) *Computational Nonlinear Morphology, with Emphasis on Semitic Languages (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002) *Syriac Alphabet for Children: Serto Edition (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2004) *(With Sebastian P. Brock) Ephrem the Syrian: Select Poems: Vocalized Syriac text with English translation, introduction and notes (Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2006) *Tūrāṣ Mamllā: A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume I: Syriac Orthography (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2012) *(With Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron Butts, and Lucas Van Rompay) The Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2011) He is directing the Antioch Bible project. As of 2014, he has published over 40 papers in the fields of computational linguistics and Syriac studies.

Ordinations

Kiraz is a deacon in the

Syriac Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg , imagewidth = 250 , alt = Cathedral of Saint George , caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...

. He was consecrated and anointed a reader (Syriac Qoruyo) in

on February 6, 1977 by the laying on of the hands of Mor Dioscoros Luqa Sha'ya, then Metropolitan of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. He was ordained a sub-deacon by the late Mor Julius Yeshu Çiçek at St. Mark's Monastery on January 9, 1983. He was ordained a full deacon (Syriac Ewangeloyo) in

Teaneck Teaneck () is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,776, reflecting an increase of 516 (+1.3%) f ...

, NJ, by Mor Cyril Ephrem Karim on October 14, 2012. He served in the following churches: St. Mary, Bethlehem (ca. 1973–1983), St. Mark’s Monastery, Jerusalem, and the Holy Sites (ca. 1979–1983), St. Ephrem, Los Angeles (1983–1990, 1996), St. Jacob Burd‛ono, London (1991–1996, sporadically), St. Mark’s Cathedral, Teaneck, NJ (1996–), and St. John bar Aphtonia, Cranbury, NJ (2003–).

Trivia

* The word "Kiraz" means cherry in Turkish language.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiraz, George 1965 births Living people Syriacists People from Bethlehem Palestinian people