nurturing ties Study
nurturing ties Study groups to explore Chaldean-Jewish relationship building. “Our efforts will lead to grassroots initiatives that will leverage shared knowledge and friendships into durable, meaningful collaborations — strengthening our community and our region.” arthur horwitz, publisher, jewish News Robert Sklar Editor | Detroit Jewish News Vanessa Denha-Garmo Editor | Chaldean News Fourth of a nine-part monthly series Four committees are being developed to build and expand on relationships between Southeast Michigan’s Chaldean and Jewish communities. The ad hoc committees will focus on: • Economic Development; • Arts & Culture; • Social Action; • Education. The committees sprang from an outpouring of interest generated from the May 4 dinner celebrating “Building Community,” the nine-monthlong initiative between the Chaldean News and the Detroit Jewish News. The initiative ends in January. Its goal is to enlighten the Jewish and Chaldean communities about each other’s common roots and the potential for working together in pursuit of a better quality of life for all Metro Detroiters. Both ethnic groups maintain strong ties to their ancestral homelands in the Middle East — Iraq for the Chaldean community and Israel for the Jewish community. Both groups also are significant players in the economic, philanthropic political, cultural and religious vigor of Southeastern Michigan. Against this backdrop, each of the “Building Community” committees will have co-chairs: one Jewish and one Chaldean. Each panel also will have an equal number of Chaldean and Jewish members. “We would like to convene the eight co-chairs at the outset, assisting them in selecting their committee members, then letting them do their thing,” said JN Publisher Arthur Horwitz, who developed “Building Community” with Martin Manna, co-publisher of the Chaldean News. The JN, published each Thursday, and the Chaldean News, a monthly coming out near the first of each month, are both based in Southfield. Some of the collaborative ideas that bubbled up from the “Building Community” introductory dinner on May 4 at Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield were: • Chaldean-Jewish youth theater productions; • Exhibits at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills (for example, Chaldean deaths in the Armenian genocide and Chaldean American soldiers who helped liberate Dachau, a German concentration camp); • Chaldean and Jewish cuisine (possible cooking classes; a joint cookbook); • Business mentorships and internships; • Refugee settlement. “When people ask what will happen after the formal ‘Building Community’ initiative concludes in January,” Horwitz said, “it will be these kinds of grassroots initiatives, taken by similarly motivated people in the Chaldean and Jewish communities, that will leverage shared knowledge and friendships into durable, meaningful collaborations, further strengthening our communities and, by extension, our entire region.” An additional idea for collaboration germinated at the June 16 young entrepreneurs’ event hosted by Horwitz and Manna at TechTown on the Wayne State University campus in Detroit. That idea envisioned young Chaldean and Jewish entrepreneurs serving as mentors to Detroit high school students enrolled in a special entrepreneurs curriculum involving University Preparatory Academy in Detroit and the University of Michigan-Dearborn College of Business. “Our publications will continue to bring our communities together in a region that currently lacks hope for the future. At our Entrepreneur Forum, you felt a desire from the participants for us all to do more,” said Manna. “The ‘Building Community’ initiative is building long-lasting friendships, building business partnerships and will help build the new economy Michigan so desperately needs.” Creative director, Deborah Schultz Senior copy editor, David Sachs College of Business WHAT’S YOUR VIEW? AS PART OF THE “BUILDING COMMUNITY” INITIATIVE, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN IS SURVEYING READERS OF THE CHALDEAN NEWS AND THE JEWISH NEWS. WE ASK THAT YOU TAKE THREE MINUTES TO COMPLETE AN ONLINE SURVEY REGARDING YOUR VIEWS OF THE JEWISH AND CHALDEAN COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN. ALL RESPONSES ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND ANONYMOUS. PLEASE VISIT HTTP://TINYURL.COM/BUILDINGCOMMUNITYSURVEY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY. 22 CHALDEAN NEWS JULY 2010
Seeking A New Model For Prosperity Community entrepreneurs share “the language of business.” Left photo: TechTown panelists included Charlie Rothstein, founder of Beringea; Anmar Sarafa, CEO of Steward Capital Management; Josh Linkner, founder/chairman of ePrize; Saber Ammori, CEO of Wireless Vision. Center photo: Josh Levine of Huntington Woods converses with Michael Shallal of West Bloomfield. Right photo: Saber Ammori shares views with Jack Miner of West Bloomfield and Francine Wunder of Beverly Hills. Photos by Kiya Gibbons Vanessa Denha-Garmo Editor | Chaldean News The budding Chaldean News/ Jewish News partnership included a discussion about the future of Michigan, economic growth and jobs by a June 16 panel focused on entrepreneurship. In April, the two Southfield-based publications launched a historic collaboration, “Building Community,” in which both newspapers highlight the similarities and challenges the two ethnic communities face in Metro Detroit. The collaboration called for three educational forums; the first was held at TechTown on the Wayne State University campus inside the Detroit building that once housed the team that designed the Chevrolet Corvette. The conversation centered on engaging entrepreneurs and creating economic development within Michigan. The panel — composed of Jewish and Chaldean entrepreneurs — included Josh Linkner, founder and chairman of Pleasant Ridge-based ePrize; Charlie Rothstein, senior managing director and co-founder of Beringea (Michigan’s largest venture capital fund); Anmar Sarafa, chief investment officer of Bloomfield Hills-based Steward Capital Management; and Saber Ammori, CEO of West Bloomfield-based Wireless Vision. R.J. King, editor of Detroitbased DBusiness magazine, moderated the discussion. Topics of the evening kept flowing, including: diversifying our economy, emerging sectors, retaining talent, investment capital, the future of the state and its economic stability. “The state needs a business plan that will attract business and create jobs. We need leaders with a vision.” Anmar Sarafa, Steward Capital Management Looking Forward As the world changed, Michigan stayed stagnant and did not embrace new business models, according to the panel. “The best thing we can do,” said Linkner, “is to emerge beyond old business models and look at new models that are based on creativity and innovation. This region is primed for growth. We have talent, a city with a soul and rich entrepreneurial heritage. As we leap forward into future, we need to look at digital media, the film industry and alternative energy and make a new Detroit.” Diversifying the economy does not mean we discount the auto industry, asserted Rothstein. The auto companies are getting into alternative energies and the region is leading the nation in alternative energy products such as batteries manufactured by companies like A123 Systems in Livonia. The panel agreed that the state needs better leaders who understand business models. “We have to look at the state as a very large corporation,” said Sarafa. “There is something wrong with the business model. The state needs a business plan that will attract business and create jobs. We need leaders with a vision.” When the question was posed about what the next governor needs to do, Ammori talked about capitalism and the free market. “We are stifling our business in this state,” he said. “We need to get our companies healthy again. I believe in the trickle-down effect. We hear about a turnaround and job creation, but in order to have that, we need to get our companies healthy again so they can create jobs.” A Game Plan The vision that Michigan’s business leadership needs to adopt must encompass talking to college graduates and asking them what they want and what they need in order to stay in the state, Rothstein said. More than a business-minded team of people, the state needs a viable metropolitan city. In order to attract businesses and young talent, a thriving big city is imperative. “We need an urban core,” said Linkner. “If you look at the most successful regions around the world, they have two things going for them,” said King. “They have great places to live, and they have a high percentage of college graduates and above. That is where Detroit needs to get to.” “Detroit needs to be fixed or forgotten,” said Rothstein. Thriving cities also have a masstransit system, which has been discussed for decades by the leadership of Southeast Michigan, but never implemented. The capacity audience of more than 60 people with varied business backgrounds offered their own input into the discussion. Concerns about misconceptions about the region as well as how to launch a new business were addressed. Strengthening Ties The panel agreed that the collaboration between the Jewish and the Chaldean communities in Southeast Michigan should be expanded. “We are ambassadors of a shared vision,” said Linkner. “We all need to go out to communities and talk about our similarities instead of our differences. We need to talk more about building bridges instead of destroying them. We have a common vision of education and business success. We need to celebrate those similarities and find opportunities to work as a team.” “We are bounded by the same work ethic,” said Sarafa. “We share the language of business. We are able to speak it the same way; we are able to pursue it the same way. And I think that is one thing that binds both communities together. It is one reason this collaboration has been so successful thus far.” Our fourth two-page monthly spread, developed by the Farmington Hills strategic communications firm Tanner Friedman, appears today on pages 24-25. JULY 2010 CHALDEAN NEWS 23
