Cross-Cultural Networking

New workgroup leaders eye plenty of pollinating activity to nurture business ties.

Robert Sklar I JN Contributing Editor

Two entrepreneurial stalwarts of

now co-chair the Chaldean/Jewish

67,000 Jews, whose ancestral homeland
is Israel, and 121,000 Chaldeans, whose
ancestral homeland is Iraq. Both of those
Middle East lands have integral biblical
connections.

Building Community Initiative's

Opportunity Plus

the Metro Detroit business scene

Business/Entrepreneurship

Workgroup:

• Anmar Sarafa, a Baghdad native; found-
er, president and CEO of Steward Capital
Management (a SEC-registered investment
firm in Bloomfield Hills); newly appointed
by the governor to the Michigan Economic
Development Corporation executive com-
mittee.
• Richard Nodel, a Detroit native; manag-
ing partner and president of Nodel Parks
(a Southfield business in the manufactured
housing community industry); former
president of both the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit
and the Anti-Defamation League-Michigan
Region.
The Building Community Initiative (BCI)
is a joint venture of the Chaldean News and
the Detroit Jewish News, both published
from Southfield. The ambitious intent over
the last 2 1/4 years has been to build lasting
business, social, communal and charitable
relationships between Chaldeans and Jews
in Metro Detroit. Metro Detroit is home to

Anmar Sarafa

The Business/Entrepreneurship Workgroup
is positioned to serve as a pipeline for
sharing the business experience of both
communities with small business owners
in hopes of creating sustainable enterprises
while generating good will.
"While there are examples of
Chaldean-Jewish business partnerships,
Building Community and its Business/
Entrepreneurship Workgroup, through
networking events and other engagement,
can help expand the universe of potential
collaborations and deal-flow that also con-
tribute to the revitalization of Detroit and
Southeast Michigan',' said Arthur Horwitz,
publisher of the Jewish News.
Workgroup objectives include "generating
opportunities for our two communities to
network, explore and appreciate each other's
accomplishments and aspirations through
an enriching environment that will create
potential partnerships to last a lifetime
said Martin Manna, co-publisher of the
Chaldean News.
The two ethnic communities have long
and mostly parallel histories of entrepre-
neurship and business acumen in Metro
Detroit. The timing is right for the Business/

Entrepreneurship Workgroup to play off
Gov. Rick Snyder's priority to develop and
attract new companies that will keep young
adult talent here in Michigan.
"This is not only important from an
economic point of view," Sarafa said, "but
also for families as well. One common bond
shared by the Jewish and Chaldean com-
munities is devotion toward family. If we are
able to keep young talent here to establish
their businesses and careers, it will have a
very positive impact on their families. Their
children will have grandparents around
who can teach cultural traditions and
impart wisdom all the time instead of only
when visiting from out of state'

Ties That Bind

Sarafa is eager to help Jews and Chaldeans
network to better learn how to work
together.
"Both Jewish and Chaldean business
people face similar challenges in today's
economy, but often don't have an oppor-
tunity to learn about their respective
businesses and potential opportunities to
work with one another',' he said. "This is
especially true of the new generation of
young business leaders who are much more
knowledgeable about new technology and
tend to have a more entrepreneurial spirit to
their business goals and objectives:'
Nodel envisions their workgroup inspir-
ing and spreading dialogue that helps
increase cross-cultural business pollination

moved to Southfield. Sarafa attended

the Chaldean community.
"As a result;' he said, "I was able to
develop an understanding of having strong

that Chaldeans had a lot of things in

cultural values and traditions, and also a

common with the Jewish community.
But he never looked deeper into those
bonds until he owned his own business.
He now counts Jews among his friends and confi-

sensitivity and yearning for other cultures
and perspectives as we tried to assimilate

dants.
One of them is Larry jackier, former president
of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit

and current chair of the Technion-lsrael Institute of

Technology in Haifa, Israel.
"Through his leadership roles in the Jewish com-
munity," Sarafa said, "I've been able to learn so

within the culture that defined the U.S."

The Bloomfield Hills resident is a University of

Michigan graduate. In addition to leading Steward
Capital Management, he is a managing member

of Steward Real Estate Management and Steward
Opportunity Management, and a general partner of
Frankenmuth Brewery Real Estate. He and partners

Baton Handoff

Sarafa and Nodel are respected leaders and
businesspeople who will foster an exchange
of business ideas while promoting the con-
tributions the two communities continue to
make in Southeast Michigan, said Horwitz
and Manna, Building Community co-hosts
and chief ambassadors.
"We are pleased that they will be-build-
ing upon the efforts of our founding
workgroup chairs: Saad Hajjar, Howard
Rosenberg and Ron Asmar," Horwitz and
Manna said.
"We'll focus our attention on a new gen-
eration of business people who are now
developing businesses or taking over from
their families',' Nodel said.
Sarafa hopes the initiative "will spark
an even greater amount of understanding
and respect for each other's cultures, and a
desire to embrace both the differences and
commonalities of our past histories and
future triumphs together:' BC

Richard Node

Catholic schools; his family was active in

While growing up in Metro Detroit,
Baghdad native Anmar Sarafa learned

and helps address common business con-
cerns ranging from taxes to job creation.
"In the Jewish community' he said, "our
perception is that the Chaldean business-
man runs a party store or grocery in the
inner city. Through our meetings, this
perception will change. In the future, I hope
to see more Jewish-Chaldean partnerships
and business ventures that bring people
from our communities together and add to
the economic development of the area."

Growing up and attend-

•

Nodel sees the Chaldean

and Jewish communities
moving on a parallel course.

"Our initiative will provide

ing public schools in Detroit,
Richard Nodel was exposed

the intersection where these
two groups can cross and

to different cultures and val-

start doing business with

ues early.
"It's interesting to see how,
depending on our background, we deal

each other;' he said.
Nodel attended Wayne

with the challenges of modern society;'

Nodel said.
The Orchard Lake resident feels

close to the Chaldean community, hav-

ing lived in the West Bloomfield area
for 30 years. "But;' he said, "my level of
contact has been superficial at best. I

State University, but left after his junior

year to work after his parents made
aliyah (moved to Israel) in 1970. He

was 22.
Nodel is a member of the Anti-

Defamation League national executive

much more about the history and culture of the

from 1996 to 2009.
Sarafa is a board member of the Detroit

felt that the Chaldean-Jewish initiative,

committee and a board member of
the ADL-Michigan Region. Locally,
he is a member of the Henry Ford

Jewish nation:'
The Sarafa family moved to Detroit in 1963,

Zoological Society and a member of Chaldean
American Chamber of Commerce and Shenandoah

along with my respect for any project
of Arthur Horwitz, was an opportunity

Health System Foundation board and
president of the Henry Ford Transplant

when he was a young boy. Five years later, they

Country Club, West Bloomfield.

to go beyond that."

Council of Advisors.

operated Oakland Athletic Club in Birmingham

1.

August 2

2 012

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