George Kiraz

George Anton Kiraz (born 1965) is a Syriac scholar, best known for his contribution to modern Syriac studies.

Early life
George Kiraz was born in Bethlehem to a Syriac Orthodox merchant family which traces its roots back to Elazığ in Anatolia. He learned Syriac at the Monastery of Saint Mark, Jerusalem. In 1983 he emigrated with his family to the United States where they settled in Los Angeles.

Education
Kiraz holds numerous degrees, including a B.Sc. degree in Engineering from California State University, Northridge in 1990, a master's degree in Syriac Studies from the University of Oxford in 1991, a master's degree in computer speech and language processing, and a Ph.D. degree in computational linguistics from the University of Cambridge in 1992 and 1996 respectively.

Career
In 1986, Kiraz 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 Syriac computer fonts used in the 20th and 21st centuries.

He has been involved in Syriac-related projects, such as the co-founding of Gorgias Press, a publishing house dedicated to Syriac studies and other subjects in the humanities, and directing the Beth Mardutho Syriac Institute, which seeks to promote Syriac heritage and language.

Between 1996 and 2000, he worked at Bell Labs 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.

Ordinations
Kiraz is a deacon in the Syriac Orthodox Church. He was consecrated and anointed a reader (Syriac Qoruyo) in Bethlehem on February 6, 1977, by the laying on of the hands of Mor Dioscoros Luqa Sha'ya, then Metropolitan of Jerusalem. 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, New Jersey, by Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim (now Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II) on October 14, 2012.

He has 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, formerly Teaneck, New Jersey, currently Paramus, New Jersey (1996–)
 * St. John bar Aphtonia, Cranbury, New Jersey (2003–2022)

Personal life
He is married to Christine Kiraz. They live with their three children in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Trivia

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