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Be a Bias Busters ally on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 30. The same kind of effort that sent Michigan State student authors to the Chaldean Cultural Center wants to send students to Amish Country in 2022. Please join us as a crowd-funding ally by contributing or sharing the crowd-funding campaign with YOUR network. Let’s make a difference together and give more students this eye-opening experience. Thank you!

These are basic facts about Chaldeans from “100 Questions and Answers About Chaldean Americans.” It includes 20 of the questions in the guide, available in print and digital editions.

Who are the Chaldean people?

Are Chaldeans Arabs?

What are distinctions among Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs?

Is the Chaldean identity in danger of vanishing?

What have been Chaldean contributions to learning and knowledge?

How did they advance civilization?

If Chaldeans are Catholics, why do they have these other gods?

Do Chaldeans still live in Iraq?

How did Chaldeans become a minority in a land they once ruled?

What is the Chaldean religion?

What are some core tenets of Chaldean religious practice?

What are differences between Chaldean Catholicism and Eastern orthodoxy?

What is the pope’s relationship to the Chaldean Catholic Church?

How is the Chaldean Catholic Church organized in the United States?

Can people become Chaldean through religious conversion?

What is the Chaldean language?

What do Chaldeans mean when they say they speak the language of Jesus?

When did Chaldeans begin coming to the United States?

What are U.S. population centers for Chaldeans?

Why did the United States detain several hundred Chaldeans in 2017?

Who are the Chaldean people?

The Chaldean people trace their roots to ancient Babylon in what is now Iraq. Chaldeans are Catholics and a religious minority in Iraq, which is officially and predominantly a Muslim country. Most Chaldeans have left Iraq, primarily for the United States. Because Chaldeans dispersed, Iraq still has more Chaldeans than any other country. The Chaldean diaspora is especially present in North America, Australia, Europe and several countries in the Middle East.

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Are Chaldeans Arabs?

No. The Chaldean language is a dialect of Aramaic, not Arabic, which is a key identifier of Arabs. While Chaldeans share origins and some traditions with Arabs, it is their language, culture and history that makes them distinct. Many Chaldeans identify as Catholic Iraqis or “Middle Eastern,” which is geographic rather than cultural.

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What are distinctions among Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs?

Although all three have roots in the same region, they are religiously distinct. They also have linguistic, historic and cultural differences. Syriac is a language that also evolved from Aramaic, but is not Chaldean. Assyrians and Syriacs, who are Orthodox Christians, do not follow the pope. Chaldean Catholics do.

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Is the Chaldean identity in danger of vanishing?

Like many people, Chaldeans worry about the survival of their identity, religion, language and culture. With their homeland population greatly reduced, they face the challenges of keeping identity and tradition alive internationally. Chaldean people are working to preserve their identity within other cultures. Some worry that marriage to non-Chaldeans will dilute them. In 2017, Chaldean Catholic bishops urged their people, particularly those who had left Iraq, to persevere and to hold onto their Chaldean faith and identity.

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What have been Chaldean contributions to learning and knowledge?

Chaldeans and their predecessors, the Babylonians, made major contributions in writing, science, technology, mathematics and astrology. They devised the time system we use today with its 60-second minutes and 60-minute hours. They also described the circle as having 360 degrees. Their understanding of astronomy and ability to predict movements of heavenly bodies sparked what some have called the first scientific revolution. Across the ancient world, Greeks and Romans used the very name “Chaldean” for the astronomers of Mesopotamia.

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How did they advance civilization?

Their ancestor, Hammurabi, created one of the first legal codes in the world. Babylon was known for architectural achievement including the...