Building Community
Nur
ring 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 I DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
VANESSA DEN HA-GARMO
EDITOR I CHALDEAN NEWS
Fourth of a nine-pan monthly series
F
our committees are being
developed to build and expand
on relationships between
Southeast Michigan's Chaldean and
Jewish communities. The ad hoc com-
mittees 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-month-long initia-
tive 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 com-
mon 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, cul-
tural and religious vigor of Southeastern
Michigan.
Against this backdrop, each of the
"Building Community" committees
20
July 1 . 2010
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 thine said j1\1"
Publisher Arthur Horwitz, who developed
"Building Community" with Martin
Manna, co-publisher of the Chaldean
News.
The IN, 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 produc-
tions;
• Exhibits at the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills (for exam-
ple, 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 entre-
preneurs' 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 involv-
ing 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
~ , H
long-lasting friendships, building busi-
ness partnerships and will help build
the new economy Michigan so desper-
ately needs:'
❑
Creative director, Deborah Schultz
Senior copy editor, David Sachs
E
building
Community
IMO 41041 ,1 A s
DEARBORN
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://TINYURLCOM/BUILDINGCOMMUNITYSURVEY
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY.