Tony Khoshaba

Tony Khoshaba has contributed to various Assyrian organizations. He was a founder of the Nissan Cultural and Art Association as well as an editorial board member of Ishtar Bi-weekly an Assyrian community publication in Tehran, Iran. 

While in Tabriz, along with other Assyrian students, he helped revive the Assyrian Youth Center of Tabriz. The Assyrian youth at the center took part in a variety of activities including publishing newsletters and performing Assyrian plays.

Tony was born and raised in Urmi, the ancestral home town of Assyrians of Iran. He earned an Electrical Engineering degree from Tabriz University in 1987. Later he moved to Tehran, where he completed his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and finished his Ph.D. course work in Biomedical Engineering. In 1991, he moved to the U.S. and attended Northwestern University in Illinois and earned a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. He currently resides in San Jose and works as a principal software engineer.

While a graduate student in Tehran, he joined the Assyrian Youth National and Cultural Association and served as member of its central committee for several years. In Chicago for several years also served on board of directors of the Assyrian Academic Society. Since 2006, he has served as an active member the Assyrian Aid Society of America. He is currently the director of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the organization. 

In 2007, he founded the Mesopotamian Night project in order to promote the Assyrian culture and arts and use it as a vehicle for preservation of community’s endangered arts and music traditions. The project is mainly funded by individual donors in the community. In 2009 and 2010 the Mesopotamian Night received also a two year grant from the James Irvine Foundation which helped the continuity of the project. Since 2007, six events have been produced. In 2012 the project headquarters was moved to San Jose from Modesto because of the relocation of the project founder. The Mesopotamian Night project in 2014 is expanding beyond California borders and a similar team has been established by direct supervision by project founder in Chicago.