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Koorish Yacob Shlemon (1900-1999)

by Assyrian Information Management (AIM)

Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 03:09 PM UT

Rabi Koorish was born in 1900 in the village of Digala, Urmia, Iran.

Rabi Koorish was a graduate of the American Presbyterian college in Urmia, Iran. During WWI he joined the Assyrian Urmia battalion as a soldier under Agha Petros. Soon, he was promoted to the rank of an officer because of his fighting qualities and intelligence. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a setback for the Assyrians as the Russians withdrew from Urmia and left the 70,000 Assyrians with no support. The Assyrians battled bravely as they defended against the attacks of Turks, Kurds and Persians. About 20,000 Assyrians were killed. When the Assyrians’ ammunition began to run dangerously low, they fell for the promises of the British and some 50,000 had to flee towards Hamadan and Kermanshah and from there to Baquba, Iraq where the British setup a refugee camp for them.

When Rev. Khando, the dean and administrator of the Assyrian school at the Assyrian Presbyterian Church in Baghdad (named later by the government as the Takaddum Primary School) passed away, Rabi Koorish administered the school for the next 23 years.

Rabi Koorish emigrated to the US. He wrote several papers on the Assyrians and Christianity. In 1978 he was invited by the Board of Education of Chicago to create placement tests to evaluate the newly arriving Assyrians and their student children. In his book, “Assyrian History from the 20^th Century: Specifically Between the Two World Wars” (published in Aramaic by Nineveh Press, Chicago, 1985), Rabi Koorish gives specific details and accounts from personal experience of the tragedies the Assyrians faced during the two World Wars.

Rabi Koorish is a well respected Assyrian who served the Assyrian church and community tirelessly. Many successful Assyrians around the world graduated from the school that he administered.

Rabi Koorish married Florance in 1934 and had four children, Edwin, Adaina, Adrina and Anita who are all well educated and respectful Assyrians in the community. Rabi Koorish passed away on June 20, 1999, in Chicago.