Juliana Taimoorazy builds bridge between Assyrians, non-Assyrians

Juliana Taimoorazy is not bashful when it comes to helping Christians in the Middle East. As the founder and president of Iraqi Christian Relief Council, her boldness is part of what has made her an effective leader.

Today, her humanitarian relief organization has raised millions of dollars for persecuted Christians in Iraq and neighboring countries. She has appeared on major media outlets including Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and BBC, and has captured the attention of Western aid organizations that had long overlooked the Assyrian cause.

“I started ICRC to work with Americans and non-Assyrians because we need friends outside of our own four walls,”
Taimoorazy said.

Finding her calling

Juliana grew up in Iran. She was smuggled into Switzerland in 1989, where she spent seven days in a monastery in Zurich before being sent to Germany to seek asylum at the U.S. embassy. In 1990, she immigrated to the United States as a refugee and later earned her master’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University.

While running a medical spa in Chicago, she came across a story about Afghan women who set themselves on fire to escape forced marriages. Many survived, but with devastating burns.

Realizing one of the devices in her spa could help treat their injuries, she contacted the manufacturer and requested donated equipment, offering to travel to Kabul to train nurses and doctors.

The experience pushed her toward her true calling: helping Assyrians, particularly those in the homeland.

Stepping onto the world stage

Her rise to international advocacy began in a small coffee shop near downtown Chicago, where she sat down to write a letter to God. She remembers the date: July 25, 2007.

That morning, she had met with church leaders at Holy Name Cathedral. As a member of the large Catholic congregation, she approached a Cardinal after mass and asked bluntly: “What is the Catholic church doing to help the Assyrians in Iraq?”

She received an email the next day inviting her to the Archdiocese, where she presented a four-point plan outlining how the church could help Assyrians.

“They laughed and let me down easy,” she recalled. “They said my plan was great, but it’s not going to leave these four walls, so why don’t you start a ministry that teaches Americans about who you are and what your needs are.”

Disappointed, she left the meeting and walked into a nearby coffee shop, where she wrote a letter asking God for direction.

“Lord, I don’t know what you’re asking me to do, this is so scary,” she wrote. “I’ve never done this before, but if you’re asking me to do this, it means it is for your greater glory. Bring me the right people and I will do this.”

She keeps a copy of that letter and rereads it whenever she needs a reminder of the people God has placed in her life.

“Whoever I meet is an answer to that one prayer,” she said. She published the letter last year for ICRC’s ten-year anniversary.

Launching a relief organization

ICRC officially began in 2007, shortly after she wrote the letter. Together with close friend Romel Benjamin, she assembled a small team focused on providing aid in Iraq.

In the beginning, support from American organizations was hard to find.

“The Evangelicals would say, ‘Are you really Christian? Were you baptized as children and have you accepted Jesus with your heart?’” she said. “The Catholics would say, ‘Aren’t you used to this persecution? Why don’t you figure it out, why don’t you just pick up and leave?’ A lot of people were not interested. But in 2014, with the savagery that ISIS put on display, America and the West woke up.”

ICRC now has six board members and three advisors based in Chicago, Virginia, and Rome. While the organization began its work exclusively in Iraq, it now supports Assyrians in Jordan, the United States, Australia, France, and beyond. Most of the aid in Iraq is delivered through the Assyrian Aid Society and the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena.

Today, Juliana is a UN Delegate to Geneva, a member of the advisory council for the Simon  Wiesenthal Center in the Midwest, and a senior fellow at The Philos Project, a leadership community promoting Christian engagement in the Middle East.

Last October, she was named “Dame Commander” in the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, an international organization that advances Christian principles through charity and civic action.

Juliana believes Assyrians need a consistent presence in political hubs like Washington, D.C., and must begin thinking more strategically about the future.

“The old way doesn’t work anymore,” she said. “Enough of thinking Assyria was great 5,000 years ago. Yes it was great. But what am I doing to make it great again?”