MSC
Anmar Sarafa and Larry
Jackier in Jackier's
Bloomfield Hills law
office library
Southeast Michigan.
As many Jewish shop owners left inner-
city Detroit after the 1967 riots, Chaldean
immigrants helped fill the void. While
still maintaining their Detroit businesses,
Chaldeans soon followed the Jewish com-
munity's residential pattern and settled
northwesterly in Oakland County.
"I don't think it's an accident that Jews
and Chaldeans share so many historical
and cultural connections," Jackier says. "I
don't know if it's in our DNA or just the
course of history. But clearly, we share
a lot. Given the right opportunities, we
can create great things for both of our
communities as well as for the general
society."
Sarafa says, "What the Christians in
Iraq are going through is not unlike what
the Jewish people have gone through for
centuries. Today,
wonderful to see the
Jewish people rally on behalf of perse-
cuted Christians in the Middle East."
Jewish lawyer, Chaldean investment manager
find ties that bind.
Robert Sklar I Jewish News Contributing Editor
It started in the 1980s as a professional
relationship: Larry Jackier, active in the
Jewish community, serving as corporate
and real estate counsel for Anmar Sarafa,
a Chaldean business leader. As the years
passed, they talked more and more about
family, community and opportunity. They
discovered a spark that led to something
more than attorney and client.
Within 10 years, they had become
unswerving friends.
They have played golf,.shared social
and business events and, as University of
Michigan graduates, went to a Rose Bowl
together. Sarafa has referred Chaldean
clients to Jackier. And Jackier has asked
Sarafa to manage some of the foundation
dollars he oversees.
Jackier calls Sarafa, president and CEO
of Steward Capital Management (a SEC-
registered investment firm on Woodward
Avenue) and a member of the Chaldean
American Chamber of Commerce, "a real
visionary" Sarafa describes Jackier, partner
at Jackier Gould P.C. on West Long Lake
Road and former president of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, "a
great adviser."
42
October 4 • 2012
Their offices are less than a mile apart
in Bloomfield Hills. They got together at
Jackier's law office to share their story,
seamlessly moving from playful to seri-
ous, but always animated to make their
points.
They believe strongly in the Building
Community Initiative (BCI), a joint
venture of the Chaldean News and the
Detroit Jewish News, both published
from Southfield offices a half-mile apart
along Northwestern Highway. Over the
last 2 3% years, BCI has spurred business,
social, communal and charitable con-
nections between Chaldeans and Jews
in Metro Detroit. The hope is that those
connections turn long lasting.
"Anmar and I have a lot of shared val-
ues," says Jackier, a Detroit native.
"Larry and I respect and enjoy working
with one another," says Sarafa, a Baghdad
native whose family moved to Detroit in
1963. "To me, that's what's most impor-
tant."
The Backdrop
Metro Detroit is home to 67,000 Jews,
whose ancestral homeland is Israel, and
121,000 Chaldeans, whose ancestral
homeland is Iraq. The two Semitic eth-
nicities have rich and mostly parallel his-
tories of entrepreneurship and business
acumen in Metro Detroit, with the Jewish
community preceding the Chaldean com-
munity here by a few generations.
If BCI results in other relationships
forming even close to the one he has with
Sarafa, "it would be just a tremendous
benefit," tackier says. "I consider it a
privilege to have him as a friend."
Sarafa says, "I can't help but learn from
Larry."
Jews and Chaldeans share common
roots and aspirations: Jews in biblical
Israel and Chaldeans in the historic lands
to the northeast. The two ancient peoples
have a similar language and alphabet;
Chaldeans converse and recite their
Catholic prayers in Aramaic, the Hebrew-
like dialect of so many Jewish prayers.
Family remains the core of both cultures.
And while both groups are committed
to safeguarding and strengthening their
ancestral homelands, both are important
players in the economic, philanthropic,
political, cultural and religious life of
Getting Started
Jackier earned a bachelor's degree at the
University of Michigan and a law degree
from Yale. Sarafa earned both bachelor's
and master's degrees from the U-M
Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Jackier and Sarafa met through a
mutual local business associate, Elwood
"Woody" Simon. Jackier and Simon were
partners at Schlussel Lifton P.C., and
Sarafa was a partner at Zaske, Sarafa and
Associates, an investment firm. Arthur
Zaske had known Woody Simon, so when
Zaske and Sarafa needed corporate legal
assistance, the stage was set for Jackier
and Sarafa to meet.
In 1990, Jackier left Schlussel, Lifton
to start Jackier Gould. Eight years later,
he mediated as Zaske and Sarafa divided
their assets and Sarafa renamed the firm
Steward Capital. Woody Simon, mean-
while, also started his own law firm and
began leasing office space from Sarafa's
firm — an arrangement that continues.
"When you spend a lot of time with
someone," Jackier says, "you learn about
each other — their interests, their think-
ing. I got to know some of his family and
he got to know some of my family."
For example, when he and partners
operated Oakland Athletic Club in
Birmingham from 1996 to 2009, Sarafa
consulted with Jackier's daughter, Ariana,
a personal trainer.
Fast Friends on page 44