Assyrian Information Medium Exchange
My name is Esha Emmanuel Tamras. I am an Assyrian Christian born in Baghdad, Iraq.
I arrived Chicago, IL in Jan 1969 and and graduated from
Lake View High School in 1971. After graduating I attended
Wilbur Wright Jr. College in Chicago to study Electronics.
In 1978 I left Chicago for San Mateo, California to work for Southern Pacific Communications which was later bought out by GTE. In 1984 I moved to San Jose and in 1986 started working at Novell Inc as a Technical Support Engineer for the IBM's 3270 Mainframe emulation products(SAA). I later moved to Software Testing for the IBM 3270 SNA Gateway product, the Multi Protocol Router, Web Server and Internet Commerce, Network Management products and finally left Novell early 1998. Currently I am a Test Engineer at Edify Corportation in Santa Clara, California. Edify Corp. was acquired by S1 (Security One) early this year, 1999 and the acquisition was finalized in Nov 1999. I am responsible for testing the host connectivity (IBM 3270 and VTxxx emulation) component of our Electronic Workforce Application product.
In 1984 I was the first and only Assyrian working in the campaign for electing Anna Eshoo for Supervisor of San Mateo County and Mr. John Shimmun to the Board Of Equalization in San Francisco, I had also conducted personal interviews with both candidates on Assyrian radio programs. In December 1986 I produced the first ever television program for the Assyrian American Association of San Jose which was a one time program for Christmas 1986. I also hosted and co-hosted the Assyrian American Association of San Jose's weekly radio program on KPFA in Cupertino and also particpated in the Santa Clara County International Fair on behalf of the Assyrian American Association of San Jose and served in the Information Booth where I provided information on Assyrian history and culture.
I then joined the Assyrian University Graduate's Association in San Jose and was
appointed as the Education Committee's Chair person and headed an Assyrian Census
Project that unfortunately was not completed.
In 1992 I was instrumental in establishing, producing and hosting the weekly half hour T.V. program for the Assyrian American Association of San Jose till mid 1993. In 1994 I joined the Assyrian Aid Society of America and was appointed as the Vice President of the Santa Clara County Chapter. In 1996 I was appointed as the President of the same chapter till the end of my term at the end of 1996. Early 1997 I was appointed a member of the Executive Board of the Assyrian American Association of San Jose and was later elected as the Vice president of the same organization for the 1998-2000 two year term. During this time, I conducted computer training classes in the Assyrian language, established a membership database schema, registered the association's web domain name, designed the web page and the contents, hosted segments of the ATOUR television program, and contributed in the production of the weekly television program. After moving from Chicago to California I conducted a systematic search of almost all of the public libraries, some college and university libraries for books on Assyrians and have learned a great deal about ancient Assyrian history as well as recent history of the 19th and 20th century. I've always wondered why no one knows about Assyrians and their plight, history, culture etc. I've witnessed many events in the bay area where none but Assyrians attended and wondered why it is that we Assyrians do not mix with non-Assyrians, and why we do not share our culture, history and struggle with non-Assyrians. We have numerous magazines, publications and books in Assyrian but very little is written in English and even those have been directed toward the Assyrians and very little has been presented to non-Assyrians. I've made several attempts in the past 16 years of my life to encourage all the Assyrian organizations that I've been a member of, to participate in local community events, invite non-Assyrians to Assyrian events , publicize Assyrian events through the Radio, T.V. Public Service Announcements, as well as the local news papers, but the leaders of those organizations always had other more important issues to tackle. With the advent of the Internet and the continued popularity of the WWW I decided that I will wonder no more and that I will assume the responsibility of this task of providing information about and of Assyrians on the Internet for the whole world to see, read and learn. On these pages I present a collection of various aspects of what is Assyrian, so that today's world will know more about us.
Last Revised: Nov 23, 1999  Return to Home Page
|
During this time I joined an Assyrian band that played Assyrian and TOP 40 music
for Assyrian events in Chicago. I played rhythm guitar and sang the TOP 40 songs
of the time. Robert played the base guitar and the late Sankho Abraham played the
drums and we had a changing keyboard, accordion players at different times. The
well known Assyrian singer Jermain Tamraz had her debut sometime in late 1971,
early 1972, it was also at this time that Walter Aziz sang for the first time with
this band during an event at the Assyrian American Association on Devon Ave in
Chicago.
I was drafted into the U.S. Army Jun 1972 and after Basic Training and later Advanced
Individual Training I received my orders for Germany and was assigned to the
1st Maintenance Battalion in Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, where I served as the
Battalion's Administrative Specialist and Assistant to the Personnel Non Commissioned
Officer (PSNCO) from Nov 1972 till my Honorable discharge in June 1975 at the rank of
Sergeant.
Mid June of 1975 I returned to my home in Chicago. I started working at
G.T.E in Northlake, IL as a Telecommunications Engineer. I then returned to school
at Wilbur Wright College and also attended the Harry Truman College for a while. During
this time I joined an Assyrian band and played Guitar and sang the TOP 40 american hits of
the 70's, this band was later named Love Joy. I played with this
band till late 1978 at events for the Assyrian Amercian Association
on Devon Ave, in Chicago as well as weddings and other events.
Love Joy band
members were Shimmun Kahmoo, Shlimoon Khammoo,
Douglas Elias,the singer Zandar and later Victor Babella and
Johnson Babella. During my entertainment career I have played in
different occasions with singers such as the late Esha Zaya, Shaool Zaya, Ashur Bet Sargis,
Jermain Tamraz, Robert Bet-Sayad, George Marogulof
, Shamiram, Walter Aziz and many others.
Since moving to California I have been a member of several Assyrian organizations starting with the
St. Joseph Assyrian Church of the East where in 1982 I was the President
of the Youth Association. Later I became a member of the Assyrian American Association
of San Jose and Assyrian American Community Center of San Jose and served
on their board as an appointed officer and participated in the first attempts to re-unite these two
Assyrian organizations.
