Building Bridges among Communities

Typically, the media world loves competition. For example, Detroit is lucky to be one of the few two-newspaper towns left in the nation. There is the slightly conservative Detroit News and the little-bit liberal Detroit Free Press. Most would argue this competition makes for better news gathering and reporting.

What might be more interesting is to watch what happens when two papers team up. Such is the case between the weekly Jewish News and the monthly Chaldean News. The two organizations this month launched their own partnership to develop stronger ties (mentally and spiritually) between the two communities.

Over the next 10 months, the two editorial staffs will develop combined content, hold special events and try to make new connections between the Chaldean and Jewish populations here. They are calling the project, “Building Community.”

In an area still struggling to unify city with suburbs, white with black, East side with West side, it will be interesting to see whether true, lasting partnerships are developed through this assignment. Will new businesses arise? Will acquaintances become friends? Could two vital Detroit-area peoples turn a paper project into progress?

Some facts: Metro Detroit's Chaldean community is more than 121,000 strong, the largest concentration outside the Middle East. Meanwhile, there are 72,000 Jewish residents in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. In fact, the Jewish News notes that 90 percent of its community has lived here 20 years or more.

I spoke recently with Jewish News publisher Arthur Horwitz and Chaldean News publisher Martin Manna. The two have known each other for years. In fact, Manna consulted Horwitz when he and his partners decided to start a Chaldean newspaper. Manna calls Horwitz a mentor and friend; Horwitz returns the praise, noting Manna's vision and ingenuity.

They are hopeful that these special reports reflect the admiration they have for each other.

“It's not about anger and angst and irritation,” Horwitz said. “It's really about two communities here in the Detroit metro area that have lived and worked side by side for years. We have a lot of common heritage and traits in terms of family and business creation. But for the most part both communities didn't know each other well. … These are two communities living side by side who don't know each other well enough to have a much more robust relationship.”

Manna agrees. “We both share common geographic and Biblical origin. We also have a long history as minority community and we have faced persecution throughout history,” he said. “But we are one to two generations behind the Jewish community here, so we are still assimilating to area.”

The two men said they believe “Building Community” honors the similarities between the two groups. The project will seek to educate and entertain, but also to provide a no-holds barred look at these ethnicities. Each month, they will highlight different themes, such as the opportunities for Jews and Chaldeans as entrepreneurs in Southeastern Michigan, volunteerism among the two, education, health and public service as well as ideas for moving forward once the project has ended.

Special events are also planned for May, September and December, each designed to serve as interactive learning environments while supporting the Chaldean Federation of America's Adopt-a-Refugee-Family Initiative and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the leading non-Chaldean group working to help Iraqi Christian refugees.

Additionally, the University of Michigan-Dearborn College of Business will be conducting research at the project's beginning and end to gauge overall program progress.

Horwitz adds: “The real measure for success will be by (the project's end) that people found friends and business contacts. That a dozen or more projects have started. Or that people have taken the ball and running with it in ways that we can't even imagine.”