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.