JULY 2021

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community PROFILE Haithem Sarafa: A Profile of Giving BY M. LAPHAM Haithem Sarafa came to America from Iraq as a child, found opportunity and success, then made a life-long commitment to give back to his community. He has helped students get a good education, made Christmas merry for a lot of people, including the less fortunate, and resurrected a brewery deeply engrained in Michigan history. Born in Baghdad in 1957, he came to America in 1963 with his parents Karim and Bernadette. He credits them for teaching him to give back to the community. Karim was the president of Southfield Manor for two terms from 1969-72. Bernadette was heavily involved in the Chaldean Ladies of Charity. “I enjoy giving back,” says Sarafa. “It is what my parents raised us to do.” They also taught him the value of education and sent him to Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills. After graduating in 1975, he continued to give back to the school, sending all three of his sons there. “(Brother Rice) was a great place for my education, development, and my spirituality,” Sarafa says. Over the decades, many Chaldeans have passed through the halls of Brother Rice High School. Haithem Sarafa was the first to join its Spirit of Blessed Edmund Society. Sarafa jokes that his father once told him, “If you stay with a place and keep showing up, they will eventually give you an award.” In truth, it was the charity work he did for the school, specifically Boxing Night, that earned him the place in that society. The annual Boxing Night includes fellowship, food and drinks, casino games and University of Michigan collegiate boxing. The main event features an alumni match. All the money goes to the alumni scholarship fund. This year it raised enough for 18 scholarships. Like his father, Sarafa attended the University of Michigan. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the Ross School of Business in 1979, joining Bendix Corporation as a staff accountant. In 1980, he returned to U-M and graduated from the Ross School of Business in 1982 with his Haithem Sarafa plays Santa Claus for the Chaldean Community Foundation’s Breaking Barriers program. MBA in Finance. As Sarafa’s father was preparing to change careers, he convinced his son to come along with him to Law School at University of Detroit. The younger Sarafa graduated with a Juris Doctorate in Real Estate and Tax Law in 1985. After a stint practicing law in Farmington Hills, he found himself president of Domino Farms. He oversaw the formation of a petting zoo, a Frank Lloyd Wright Museum, a classic car collection, and one of his favorites, a golf course on Drummond Island for the company’s lodge. What meant the most to him, however, was the Christmas light show, which he felt he had to save. The first show in 1991 was a disaster. It disrupted traffic so badly people complained, and Domino Farms decided one year was enough. However, Sarafa did not see it as an irredeemable mess. He saw a good idea that could use some tweaking. He brought the lights back in 1993, charged people $5.00 to take the drive, and made a deal with local charities to man the show one night a year. At the end of the night, the money would go to whichever charity was working. In those years, he helped raise more than a million dollars for various southeastern Michigan charities. He was named Ann Arbor Ambassador of the Year in 1994. When founder Tom Monahan sold Domino Farms in 1994, Sarafa left. From there he moved to his brother’s newly formed investment firm, Zaske, Sarafa, and Associates. They invested in a variety of things including a shopping center as far north as Traverse City. However, their most notable investment was the Frankenmuth Brewing Company, the oldest brewery in Michigan. It was originally bought on behalf of a client, but the sale fell through, so Sarafa and his brother took ownership. Sarafa is president of the brewery, which also has restaurant and banquet hall. Despite a history of overseeing restaurants from his Dominos Farms days, he acknowledges owning a restaurant is a tough business, but says he enjoys the work. Through the brewery, he found another way to give back. In his history of giving, this would mean the most to him personally, and again it would have to do with Christmas. In 2015, Sarafa had a stroke, and fortunately, for the most part, recovered. However, he could no longer shave. Frankenmuth is well known as the “Christmas Capital,” so after a number of people commented on his resemblance to Santa Claus, he decided to take up the role and play Father Christmas. “Being in Frankenmuth at Christmas, it made sense,” he says. The act of spreading joy in the famous red suit fits Haithem well. When people ask him to do things in the Santa outfit, he can’t wait to say “yes!” Each year he plays Santa for the kids in the community and gives them 20 CHALDEAN NEWS JULY 2021
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