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METRO DETROIT CHALDEAN COMMUNITY VOL. 20 ISSUE VI <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
CITY<br />
on<br />
FIRE<br />
THE 1967 RIOTS’<br />
LONG SHADOW ON<br />
DETROIT AND<br />
ITS CHALDEAN<br />
COMMUNITY<br />
Featuring:<br />
Chaldean Foundation’s<br />
Iraq Mission Update<br />
U.S. Resolution Supports<br />
Iraqi Minorities<br />
Aramaic Project<br />
Preserves Language
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نعيدك الى ماكنت عليه<br />
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 3
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4 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
METRO DETROIT CHALDEAN COMMUNITY | <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> | VOL. 20 ISSUE VI<br />
AP PHOTO<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
16 1967: City on Fire<br />
The Detroit Riots and the<br />
Chaldean community<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
FEATURES<br />
18 A Historic Recognition<br />
Resolution supports minorities in Iraq<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
20 Chamber Advocacy Pays Off<br />
Liquor code amendment<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
22 The Aramaic Project<br />
Saving the ancient language<br />
By Weam Namou<br />
Congressman John Conyers encourages African Americans in Detroit’s riot area to go home.<br />
16<br />
24 Remembering Clarence Dass<br />
By Christina Salem<br />
26 Reinventing GG<br />
It’s never too late for a second act<br />
By Crystal Kassab Jabiro<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
6 From the Editor<br />
A look back, the view forward<br />
By Sarah Kittle<br />
8 Foundation Update<br />
Oakland University, Dance Class,<br />
Little Scholars<br />
9 Guest Column<br />
Iraq Mission<br />
By Mike Sarafa<br />
10 Iraq Today<br />
The Development Road<br />
12 Religion<br />
Chaldean Language Classes<br />
By Michael Antoon<br />
14 In Memoriam<br />
Honoring our recently-lost<br />
community members<br />
30 Chaldean Pioneers<br />
Jerry Yono<br />
By Cal Abbo<br />
34 Life Skills<br />
Buying that first car<br />
By Crystal Kassab Jabiro<br />
36 Sports<br />
Adrianna Kattoo’s special season<br />
By Steve Stein<br />
38 Family Time<br />
Summer Road Trips<br />
By Valene Ayar<br />
40 Economics and Enterprise<br />
In Banks We Trust<br />
By Paul Natinsky<br />
42 From the Archive<br />
Chaldean Town Remembered<br />
Photos submitted by Alexa Saffar<br />
28 East Side Story<br />
Bridging the divide<br />
By Dr. Adhid Miri<br />
32 Profile: Our Man in Blue<br />
Sgt. Lamar Kashat<br />
By Paul Natinsky<br />
30<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 5
PUBLISHED BY<br />
Chaldean News, LLC<br />
Chaldean Community Foundation<br />
Martin Manna<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
EDITOR IN CHIEF<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS<br />
Cal Abbo<br />
Michael Antoon<br />
Valene Ayar<br />
Crystal Kassab Jabiro<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
Dr. Adhid Miri<br />
Weam Namou<br />
Paul Natinsky<br />
Christina Salem<br />
Mike Sarafa<br />
Steve Stein<br />
ART & PRODUCTION<br />
CREATIVE DIRECTOR<br />
Alex Lumelsky with SKY Creative<br />
GRAPHIC DESIGNER<br />
Zina Lumelsky with SKY Creative<br />
PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />
Alex Lumelsky<br />
Dr. Adhid Miri<br />
Nico Salgado<br />
SALES<br />
Interlink Media<br />
Sana Navarrette<br />
CLASSIFIEDS<br />
Sana Navarrette<br />
CONTACT INFORMATION<br />
Story ideas: edit@chaldeannews.com<br />
Advertisements: ads@chaldeannews.com<br />
Subscription and all other inquiries:<br />
info@chaldeannews.com<br />
Chaldean News<br />
30095 Northwestern Hwy, Suite 101<br />
Farmington Hills, MI 48334<br />
www.chaldeannews.com<br />
Phone: (248) 851-8600<br />
For publishing consideration, please submit all<br />
announcements and news items by the 15th day<br />
of the month, prior to the month of publication.<br />
The Chaldean News does not make revisions<br />
to articles after publication unless there is a<br />
security-related issue. Errors are published as<br />
“Corrections” in subsequent issues.<br />
Publication: The Chaldean News (P-6);<br />
Published monthly; Issue Date: July <strong>2023</strong><br />
Subscriptions: 12 months, $35.<br />
Publication Address:<br />
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Permit to mail at periodicals postage rates<br />
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Postmaster: Send address changes to<br />
“The Chaldean News 30095 Northwestern<br />
Hwy., Suite 101, Farmington Hills, MI 48334”<br />
FROM THE EDITOR<br />
A look back, the view forward<br />
This month as we celebrate our country’s independence,<br />
it is a good time for Americans<br />
to reflect on where we came from as well as<br />
where we are going. Many efforts are underway to<br />
preserve Chaldean culture, and most visibly, the language.<br />
Some call it “Chaldean Aramaic,” and others<br />
call it “Sureth,” but what is indisputable is that the<br />
language of our forefathers connects us to the past.<br />
In the article “Chaldean Language Classes,” Michael<br />
Antoon shares his personal experience in preserving<br />
the words and dialect spoken by his ancestors.<br />
Learning the language involves more than just<br />
a textbook; in fact, Antoon emphasizes<br />
SARAH KITTLE<br />
EDITOR<br />
IN CHIEF<br />
Thanks to a generous grant from<br />
Michigan Humanities, we are embarking<br />
on a year-long quest to tell the Chaldean<br />
community’s Michigan stories and<br />
highlight their contributions to the state.<br />
that the classes he instructs, offered by<br />
St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church<br />
in West Bloomfield, teach oral tradition<br />
rather than written.<br />
The Aramaic Project is another effort<br />
to preserve history in the form of<br />
language. Weam Namou shares her<br />
knowledge of the purpose (to preserve<br />
the pronunciation, vocabulary, and<br />
syntax of Aramaic in the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala)<br />
and project (it has 7 parts).<br />
This month’s issue includes a few profiles. Crystal Kassab<br />
Jabiro writes about her friend GG, who has reinvented herself<br />
(and inspired an article) at midlife. Contributing writer<br />
Paul Natinsky offers a glimpse into the motivations of Sgt.<br />
Lamar Kashat of the Sterling Heights Police Department,<br />
and Cal Abbo writes about his grandfather, Jerry Yono, and<br />
his incredible journey from Iraq to Southfield Funeral Home.<br />
Cal also penned a couple of stories about the advocacy<br />
work the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce is engaging<br />
in, including an amendment to the Michigan liquor<br />
code that should help retailers and a resolution introduced<br />
at the federal level calling for international support of minorities<br />
and indigenous communities in Iraq.<br />
Mike Sarafa imparts his experience as part of the Iraq delegation<br />
in the fall of 2022 and the initiatives that were born out<br />
of that visit, Dr. Miri gives us his interpretation of the “Chaldean<br />
divide,” and new writer Christina Salem<br />
shares her personal revelations about<br />
her cousin, the late Clarence Dass.<br />
Family Time author Valene Ayar shares<br />
some tips for saving your sanity while driving<br />
with kids (HINT: keep them busy!) and<br />
some fun activities to take part in. In our<br />
new Life Skills section, Crystal Kassab Jabiro<br />
gives tips for buying a car to new Americans.<br />
The Economics and Enterprise article<br />
by Paul Natinsky this month is about<br />
banking, rising interest rates, and understanding<br />
inflation. It is not an easy subject to discuss,<br />
but our interviewees do it with aplomb.<br />
In From the Archives, Remembering Chaldean<br />
Town features photos submitted by readers like<br />
you. We are looking for more of these submissions<br />
for this and other projects.<br />
Last (but not least), thanks to a generous grant<br />
from Michigan Humanities, we are embarking on<br />
a year-long quest to tell the Chaldean community’s<br />
Michigan stories and highlight their contributions to<br />
the state, using print, podcasts, and in-person events.<br />
Stay tuned to hear more about this exciting project.<br />
Sarah Kittle<br />
Editor in Chief<br />
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6 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
PUBLISHER'S CIRCLE<br />
Introducing the<br />
Publishers Circle<br />
As the publication of record for Michigan’s<br />
Chaldean community, the mission of the<br />
Chaldean News is to preserve and archive<br />
Chaldean heritage and history, and to tell the<br />
ongoing story of Chaldean contributions to the<br />
communities in which we live and work — in Michigan<br />
and around the world.<br />
Since being acquired by the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation in 2019, the Chaldean News has substantially<br />
increased its readership and social media following,<br />
introduced new digital and website content, and expanded<br />
storytelling with the help of small grant funding.<br />
The Publisher’s Circle initiative will empower community<br />
members to provide major support for the Chaldean News and<br />
its important mission. With the generous help of individuals<br />
and organizations, together, we can ensure that this vital<br />
resource continues to educate and connect the community,<br />
while evolving to meet the needs of future generations.<br />
The Chaldean News has ambitious plans which include<br />
launching a CN app and continuing to expand into new<br />
media such as radio and TV, all with the goal of preserving<br />
our culture and telling the story of our people. You<br />
can take part in helping to preserve your Chaldean<br />
heritage by joining the Publisher’s Circle today.<br />
Jibran “Jim” Manna<br />
Martin and Tamara Manna<br />
We are grateful for the generous and<br />
continuing support of our community.<br />
To learn more, visit chaldeannews.com<br />
or contact us at 248-851-8600<br />
Let’s grow the circle.<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 7
FOUNDATION UPDATE<br />
Members of the CCF Team pictured with Oakland University representatives.<br />
Oakland University Visits the CCF<br />
Representatives from Oakland University visited the CCF recently to learn more about<br />
the projects and work done at the center. Open for discussion were ideas to strengthen<br />
the current strategic partnership between Oakland University and the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation and future scholarship opportunities.<br />
With the growing number of Chaldeans enrolling at Oakland University, the CCF is<br />
looking to create more engagement between the community and the university.<br />
For example, Oakland University alumnus (and proud Chaldean) Derek Dickow has<br />
established a new scholarship fund this year to help support the education of young<br />
Chaldeans attending Oakland University. For more information regarding this and<br />
other scholarship opportunities, visit chaldeanfoundation.org/scholarship-program.<br />
Stepping Up to Dance<br />
As a new educational offering, the Chaldean Community Foundation<br />
held traditional dance classes on June 7 and 14. Those in attendance<br />
were able to learn four different styles of dance from instructors<br />
Vinos Kassab and Raquel Orow. The diverse group included<br />
everyone from young Chaldeans trying to learn and maintain their<br />
own culture to a couple seeking to become competent at traditional<br />
dances before their wedding celebration later this year.<br />
Participants engaged in step-by-step and group instruction<br />
as they learned about bagyie/peda, khigga yaqoora, chobi, and<br />
gushiani traditional dances. Learning as a group was not only fun<br />
but also helped to create confidence amongst the group and led to<br />
the group picking up the steps very quickly. The goal of the pilot<br />
program, supported by the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, is<br />
to preserve the cultural dances performed during various celebrations<br />
within the Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac communities.<br />
Record Breaking Year<br />
in Scholarships<br />
For the first time in its program history, the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation Academic Scholarship Program is expected to<br />
award more than $100,000 in scholarships to Chaldean students<br />
for the upcoming school year. Since the program’s inception in<br />
2016, the CCF has awarded more than $350,000 in scholarships.<br />
“This is a major milestone in the scholarship program,” said<br />
CCF president Martin Manna, “and it really shows the need for<br />
financial assistance for a large portion of the community.” The<br />
deadline to apply for the <strong>2023</strong> program is Friday, July 7 at 5PM.<br />
Upcoming Events<br />
August 10: Warren Consolidated Schools Back to School Event<br />
August 17: Utica Community Schools Back to School Event<br />
September 22: 5th Annual Awards Gala<br />
Creating Future<br />
Scholars<br />
Thirty-six adorable preschoolers graduated<br />
from the Little Scholars Program<br />
at CCF on Monday, June 12. Katie<br />
Geekie, the Department of Education<br />
qualified teacher, led the graduates<br />
who performed by singing and showing<br />
off what they learned this year before<br />
walking across the stage.<br />
Each student was handed a certificate<br />
of completion. The shared luncheon<br />
was their “last hurrah” before many<br />
of the students will head to kindergarten<br />
or other learning opportunities in<br />
the next school year. Parents received<br />
some goodies and memorabilia from the<br />
school year as well, ensuring the memories<br />
from the program last a lifetime.<br />
For more information regarding<br />
our Little Scholars Program, contact<br />
our office at 586-722-7253 or visit us at<br />
3601 15 Mile Rd in Sterling Heights for<br />
more information.<br />
Little Scholars Program graduates are recognized at the June 12 ceremony.<br />
8 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
GUEST COLUMN<br />
Making Great Strides<br />
Chaldean Community Foundation’s Iraq Mission<br />
It was day two in<br />
Iraq. We were still jet<br />
lagged. Several in our<br />
delegation were born in<br />
Iraq but had never been<br />
back. We stepped off the<br />
van and into a tiny village<br />
that appeared to be<br />
unchanged from a couple<br />
hundred years ago. While<br />
modernity and progress<br />
had passed it by, war and<br />
destruction did not. Maybe<br />
250 families live here, we were told.<br />
It was the Christian village located<br />
in the Nineveh Plain just a short mile<br />
from Telkaif. For this group, it was<br />
our first opportunity to see what had<br />
become of our ancestral homeland.<br />
Emotions were raw.<br />
We boarded back on the van after<br />
a short visit, anxious to head into<br />
Telkaif before dusk. You could have<br />
cut the silence with a knife. As tears<br />
rolled down the eyes of these grown<br />
men, it was then that we vowed to<br />
turn this trip into more than a sightseeing<br />
opportunity. Action was needed.<br />
Arkan Jonna later stated, “[this]<br />
must be seen and dealt with.”<br />
Making good on a pledge that<br />
was made that day, a fundraiser was<br />
held at the home of Wissam and Efnan<br />
Kashat, raising $35,000. Those<br />
funds will support the construction<br />
and furnishings of a workshop in the<br />
town Batnaya, described above, that<br />
will create jobs and help support a<br />
small group of special needs children<br />
and adults that live there.<br />
“You can’t look at the situation of<br />
these people and go home and forget<br />
about it,” said Wissam Kashat, a delegation<br />
member. “We wanted to make<br />
sure we did something to help.”<br />
Wissam relayed this story about<br />
the evening at his home: The event<br />
included a presentation, some short<br />
talks, and a video regarding the<br />
plight of Christians in the Nineveh<br />
Plain. The hosts had hired some staff<br />
to help with service and cleaning.<br />
They were Chaldean and more recent<br />
immigrants and were listening<br />
and watching during the program.<br />
MIKE SARAFA<br />
SPECIAL TO<br />
THE CHALDEAN<br />
NEWS<br />
At the end of the evening, the<br />
Kashats went to pay for their<br />
service. Having been moved<br />
by what they heard and saw<br />
and having themselves fled<br />
that exact situation, they refused<br />
to accept the money.<br />
They asked that those funds<br />
be donated to assist the people<br />
back home.<br />
Karamlesh is a small<br />
Chaldean town, also in Iraq’s<br />
Nineveh Plain, with a long<br />
agricultural history. For centuries,<br />
the town has been known for its fertile<br />
lands, which have produced a<br />
variety of crops such as wheat, barley,<br />
and vegetables. However, due<br />
to a lack of water supply, which is<br />
required for irrigation, the town’s<br />
agricultural output has declined in<br />
recent years. The canal that irrigates<br />
Karamlesh’s lands has been suffering<br />
from a lack of water due to a variety<br />
of factors, including low rainfall,<br />
climate change, and water diversion<br />
to other regions.<br />
The town’s growth and prosperity<br />
have been hampered by a lack of water.<br />
Many farmers have been forced<br />
to abandon their lands, causing the<br />
town’s economy and overall wellbeing<br />
to suffer. For years, residents<br />
have been looking for a solution to<br />
the water crisis, with little success.<br />
Thanks to a generous $50,000 donation<br />
from Michigan businessman<br />
Chris Yatooma, and the efforts of retired<br />
civil engineer Dave Nona, the<br />
CCF’s Iraq Mission is going to spearhead<br />
the building of a water well in<br />
Karamlesh. “You can’t help but be<br />
moved into action,” said Yatooma,<br />
a delegation member and owner of<br />
Citizen’s State Bank.<br />
Several other initiatives borne<br />
out of last fall’s trip to Iraq are being<br />
spearheaded by the Foundation.<br />
The Nineveh Plain Box Initiative<br />
intends to let Iraqi Americans and<br />
others subscribe to a quarterly program<br />
where goods and merchandise<br />
made in northern Iraq are shipped<br />
to people’s homes here in the United<br />
States. “It’s a win/win kind of program,”<br />
said Tommy Haji with the CCF.<br />
“Chaldeans here will receive items<br />
from their ancestral homeland while<br />
supporting small businesses there at<br />
the same time.” It is modeled after a<br />
program that does something similar<br />
in partnership with the Holy Land.<br />
Also, the CCF has partnered with<br />
a travel agency to begin annual pilgrimages<br />
to the Nineveh Plain region.<br />
These trips promise to reconnect<br />
Iraqi American immigrants<br />
to their ancestral homeland while<br />
also creating an opportunity for<br />
American-born Chaldeans to visit<br />
the birthplaces of their parents and<br />
grandparents.<br />
“All of these things are equally<br />
important,” said Martin Manna,<br />
president of the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation and Chaldean American<br />
Chamber of Commerce. “But<br />
amongst equals, these ongoing pilgrimages<br />
will expose more people to<br />
the situation on the ground in northern<br />
Iraq. That will help create more<br />
awareness and ultimately more resources<br />
to continue our work there.”<br />
Importantly, the Iraq Mission and<br />
all the related projects are being supported<br />
by the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation – Iraq Mission. This includes<br />
two full-time staff people in<br />
Iraq that oversee the Mission’s projects<br />
and help ensure accountability<br />
and progress. They will also be directly<br />
involved in helping to host the<br />
participants of the annual pilgrimages.<br />
This entity is being legally formalized<br />
and recognized in Iraq both<br />
by the central government in Baghdad<br />
and the by the Kurdish Regional<br />
Government.<br />
Finally, in an historic achievement,<br />
through the encouragement<br />
the Iraq Mission Committee of the<br />
CCF, Congress has introduced a resolution<br />
that will further the politics<br />
necessary to achieve greater equality<br />
inside Iraq for religious minorities.<br />
It reads in part:<br />
Resolved, That the United States<br />
House of Representatives—<br />
(1) protects and upholds that the<br />
fundamental human right and dignity<br />
of the religious and ethnic minority<br />
communities of Iraq should be<br />
a policy priority of the United States<br />
and the international community;<br />
(2) supports the restoration of<br />
security, stability, and economic opportunity<br />
of, as well as the safe, dignified,<br />
and voluntary return of the<br />
displaced Indigenous peoples to the<br />
territories of Mosul, Baaj, Sinjar, and<br />
the Nineveh Plain, and other ancestral<br />
homelands of minority religious<br />
and ethnic communities, and should<br />
be a policy priority of United States<br />
and the international community;<br />
(3) supports the restoration of<br />
homes, schools, churches and other<br />
religious sites, and community buildings<br />
of religious and ethnic minority<br />
communities in these regions should<br />
receive a specific and enduring budget<br />
allocation by the Iraqi Government,<br />
as well as continued support<br />
from international aid donors;<br />
(4) supports the effective representation<br />
in consultation with members<br />
of the Indigenous population,<br />
including internally displaced members<br />
of religious and ethnic minority<br />
communities is essential to restoring<br />
and upholding the rights of these<br />
communities, in line with Article 125<br />
of the Constitution of Iraq, which<br />
states that the Constitution ‘‘shall<br />
guarantee the administrative, political,<br />
cultural, and educational rights<br />
of the various nationalities, such as<br />
Turkmen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and<br />
all other constituents, and this shall<br />
be regulated by law’’; and<br />
(5) supports greater regional integration<br />
for minority groups in Iraq<br />
and encourages the Secretary of State<br />
to promote opportunities for affected<br />
minority groups to achieve greater administrative<br />
autonomy within the federal<br />
structure of the Republic.<br />
In conclusion, there is much work<br />
to be done, but many hands (and<br />
hearts) make the work lighter.<br />
Mike Sarafa is one of the original<br />
publishers of the Chaldean News<br />
and host of a short-form podcast,<br />
Mike’s Musings.<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 9
IRAQ TODAY<br />
IRAQI PARLIAMENT MEDIA OFFICE VIA AP<br />
This photo from Iraqi parliament shows the Iraqi lawmakers attend a parliamentary session to vote on the federal budget at the parliament headquarters in<br />
Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, June 11, <strong>2023</strong>. Iraq’s parliament approved a record $152 billion budget for <strong>2023</strong> after months of wrangling over the sharing of oil<br />
revenue between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region in the north.<br />
Iraq launches $17 billion road and rail<br />
project to link Asia and Europe<br />
BY TIMOUR AZHARI<br />
Baghdad, May 27 (Reuters)<br />
Iraq launched a $17 billion project<br />
to link a major commodities port<br />
on its southern coast by rail and<br />
roads to the border with Turkey, in a<br />
move designed to transform the country’s<br />
economy after decades of war<br />
and crisis.<br />
The Development Road aims to tie<br />
the Grand Faw Port in Iraq’s oil-rich<br />
south to Turkey, turning the country<br />
into a transit hub by shortening travel<br />
time between Asia and Europe in a<br />
bid to rival the Suez Canal.<br />
“The Development Road is not<br />
just a road to move goods or passengers.<br />
This road opens the door to<br />
development of vast areas of Iraq,”<br />
Farhan al-Fartousi, director general<br />
of the General Company for Ports of<br />
Iraq, told Reuters.<br />
Iraq’s government envisions<br />
high-speed trains moving goods and<br />
passengers at up to 300 kilometers<br />
(186.41 miles) per hour, links to local<br />
industry hubs and an energy component<br />
that could include oil and gas<br />
pipelines.<br />
It would mark a significant departure<br />
from the country’s existing<br />
aged transport network.<br />
Iraq’s train service currently operates<br />
a handful of lines, including<br />
slow oil freight and a single overnight<br />
passenger train that trundles<br />
from Baghdad to Basra, taking 10 to<br />
12 hours to cover 500 kilometers.<br />
The Grand Faw Port, which was<br />
devised over a decade ago, is halfway<br />
to completion, Fartousi said.<br />
Passenger transport between Iraq<br />
and Europe harkens back to grand<br />
plans at the turn of the 20th century<br />
to create a Baghdad to Berlin express.<br />
“We will make this line active<br />
again and tie it to other countries,”<br />
Fartousi said, noting plans to ferry<br />
tourists and pilgrims to Shiite holy<br />
sites in Iraq and Mecca in Saudi Arabia<br />
for the Haj pilgrimage.<br />
The project was announced at a<br />
conference aimed at courting Arab<br />
interest, including from Arab Gulf<br />
states, Syria and Jordan. A senior<br />
government aide said regional investment<br />
was on the table.<br />
Promises of development are<br />
long-standing in Iraq but infrastructure<br />
remains decrepit even as<br />
the government of Prime Minister<br />
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani makes a<br />
push to rebuild roads and bridges.<br />
But officials say the Development<br />
Road is based on something new: a<br />
period of relative stability since late<br />
last year that they hope can be maintained.<br />
If work starts early next year, the<br />
project would be completed in 2029,<br />
Fartousi said.<br />
“Even if Iraq was absent for a year<br />
or two or a decade or two, it must return<br />
one day or another. Hopefully<br />
these days are the beginning of the<br />
return of Iraq,” he said.<br />
10 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 11
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A TTORNEYS & C O UNSELORS AT LAW<br />
Preserving our beautiful language<br />
is the responsibility of<br />
every person who has been<br />
blessed to be born into our Chaldean<br />
culture. The language is being spoken<br />
less and less in homes and is becoming<br />
exclusive to the older generation.<br />
What a shame it would be for our thriving<br />
community in Michigan to allow<br />
our language to die!<br />
Thankfully the Chaldean Diocese of<br />
St. Thomas the Apostle U.S.A. has begun<br />
taking the initiative to preserve the<br />
language by creating course material.<br />
The language course is designed to be a<br />
guideline to learn, speak, and pass down<br />
the language for generations to come.<br />
The curriculum “Let’s Learn How to<br />
Speak Chaldean - Level 1” was created<br />
by Shamasha Khairy Foumia and Lina<br />
Yaldo for the Chaldean Diocese. This<br />
book introduces the spoken Chaldean<br />
language using English letters and<br />
characters. The curriculum consists<br />
of six chapters—Introduction, Calendar,<br />
School, Family, Descriptions, and<br />
Food—with five lessons in each. There<br />
are also three extra lessons on Christmas,<br />
Easter, and Prayers.<br />
This specific curriculum (Level 1)<br />
was designed and intended for children<br />
of younger ages, but it could be<br />
used as an introductory course for<br />
people of all ages who are interested<br />
in learning how to speak the language.<br />
The book features pictures and is full<br />
color to enhance interaction with the<br />
course material. Each chapter and<br />
lesson has its own learning objective,<br />
with the material on the first page and<br />
approximately three pages of in-class/<br />
homework activities that follow.<br />
This book is the first of its kind because<br />
it has successfully provided the<br />
outline to learn our spoken Chaldean<br />
language without the need to know the<br />
written language. I hope that this first<br />
level of speaking classes plants the seed<br />
in students’ hearts to return and learn<br />
more as more levels are being developed.<br />
In March of <strong>2023</strong>, St. Thomas Chaldean<br />
Catholic Church in West Bloomfield<br />
began the first session of their Level<br />
1 Chaldean Speaking Classes. The program<br />
was led by Shamasha Khairy Foumia<br />
and myself, Michael Antoon, with<br />
the support of nine other great teachers:<br />
Lina Yaldo, Andre Yono, Travis Kajy,<br />
Sarmad Hanna Kachal, Sara Kaskorkis,<br />
Zachary Yono, Seminarian Yousif<br />
Habeeb, Hailey Odish, and Patrick Kakos.<br />
The program was also supported<br />
by Father Stephan Kallabat, who made<br />
many appearances and shared many encouraging<br />
messages with our students.<br />
The original plan of the class was<br />
to have two classes with one teacher<br />
in each, but after seeing the demand<br />
from the community, it was evident we<br />
would need to accommodate more. By<br />
the grace of God, we found amazing<br />
teachers and were able to open 4 different<br />
levels of classes. These were split by<br />
grades 2-5, 6-8, 9-12, and age 18 and up.<br />
Still, as the days to the first class<br />
approached the sign-ups kept coming,<br />
which brought the need for 3 separate<br />
classes of elementary kids alone. By<br />
the beginning of the classes, we had<br />
almost 150 students split among six<br />
classes. Wow! Never did I expect such<br />
a turnout. I saw parents and students<br />
with a zeal for themselves and/or their<br />
children to learn our mother tongue.<br />
After the 10-week course ended<br />
this past June, the elementary, middle,<br />
and high school classes had a party to<br />
celebrate their great accomplishment.<br />
Each student also received a signed certificate<br />
of completion. We plan to hold<br />
the next session of this class in the fall.<br />
Keep an eye on the St. Thomas social<br />
media pages for more information.<br />
Michael Antoon serves Chaldean and<br />
English Masses in the Diocese and reads<br />
and writes Aramaic (Chaldean). He is<br />
a part of the Chaldean Voice Radio as<br />
well as a writer for the Chaldean News.<br />
His passion is preserving the Chaldean<br />
language and church liturgy.<br />
Other sources for learning<br />
the Chaldean language<br />
include Classical Aramaic by<br />
Fr. Michael Bazzi & Dr. Rocco<br />
Errico, Preserving the Chaldean<br />
Language by Roy Gessford, and<br />
Mango Languages’ Chaldean<br />
Aramaic course, created in<br />
conjunction with the Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation.<br />
12 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 13
IN MEMORIAM<br />
Hanna<br />
Shamoon Taan<br />
Jul 1, 1941 –<br />
May 22, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Habeeba<br />
Hesano<br />
Jany 10, 1925 –<br />
May 23, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Hayat Elias<br />
Fattohi Karam<br />
Nov 15, 1931 –<br />
May 23, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Zahia Hanna Putrus<br />
Kas-Shamoun<br />
Feb 6, 1958 –<br />
May 23, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Saad Nissan Yono<br />
Dec 2, 1951 –<br />
May 25, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Essam Erimya<br />
Namou<br />
Jul 1, 1960 –<br />
May 25, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Oliver “Ollie”<br />
Khadher<br />
Aug 15, 1990 –<br />
May 27, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Benyamin<br />
Shamona Alsindi<br />
Nov 9, 1938 –<br />
May 28, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Haifaa Jameel –<br />
Yousif Qajee<br />
Jul 1, 1955 –<br />
May 28, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Faiza Faraj<br />
George<br />
Jul 7, 1958 –<br />
Jun 1, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Touma Oraha<br />
Korail<br />
Jul 1, 1948 –<br />
Jun 1, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Bassmi<br />
Hermiz Yako<br />
Jul 1, 1934 –<br />
Jun 1, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Nazhat<br />
Mansour Abbo<br />
Jul 1, 1933 –<br />
Jun 2, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Kamil Maroke<br />
(Yelda Jadan)<br />
Jul 1, 1934 –<br />
Jun 3, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Rafie Yousif Jamil<br />
Jan 22, 1951 –<br />
Jun 5, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Andy Sanawye<br />
Jan 17, 1982 –<br />
Jun 6, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sabah Zia Shunia<br />
Mar 15, 1940 –<br />
Jun 9, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Baso Toma Saka<br />
Jul 1, 1941 –<br />
Jun 10, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Mary Kinaya<br />
Khames<br />
Jun 15, 1943 –<br />
Jun 11, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Amira Hormiz<br />
Shabilla<br />
Jul 1, 1949 –<br />
Jun 11, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Eshmail Shaba<br />
Jul 1, 1957 –<br />
Jun 12, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Habiba Hady<br />
Halata<br />
Jul 1, 1937 –<br />
Jun 12, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Moukhles<br />
Al – Tawil<br />
Jan 10, 1945 –<br />
Jun 13, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Kamal Mousa<br />
Shamo Allos<br />
Aug 4, 1950 –<br />
Jun 13, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Jolit Daoud Garmo<br />
Mar 20, 1949 –<br />
Jun 13, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Youhanna<br />
Hanna Mazi<br />
Jul 1, 1941 –<br />
Jun 14, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sharif Abdulahad<br />
Shango<br />
Jul 1, 1943 –<br />
Jun 14, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Intisar Jirjis –<br />
Abboo Aldaimi<br />
Jul 1, 1945 –<br />
Jun 15, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Randy Raymond<br />
Asker<br />
Apr 24, 1974 –<br />
Jun 17, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Senaa Dallo<br />
Jan 26, 1958 –<br />
Jun 18, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Mark Sami<br />
Shakkuri<br />
Jul 16, 1982 –<br />
Jun 18, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sarah Yousif<br />
Hermiz Abaya<br />
Aug 8, 1934 –<br />
Jun 19, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Issam Ghanim<br />
Pattah<br />
Apr 15, 1967 –<br />
Jun 20, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Shamasha Farouk<br />
Dawood Samona<br />
Nov 16, 1947 –<br />
Jun 21, <strong>2023</strong><br />
Jelbart<br />
Joseph Dado<br />
Jun 14, 1980 –<br />
Jun 22, <strong>2023</strong><br />
14 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 15
COVER STORY<br />
1967: City On Fire<br />
The 1967 Riots’ long shadow on Detroit<br />
and its Chaldean Community<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
Plant, located in Warren, produced<br />
more tanks than the entire country of<br />
Germany during the war years. To do<br />
so, Chrysler fused together five six-cylinder<br />
engines they had been using in<br />
their pre-war cars. Among other things,<br />
General Motors produced 120 million<br />
artillery shells, 200,000 artillery shells,<br />
13,000 navy planes, 38,000 tanks,<br />
854,000 trucks, 3.8 million electric motors,<br />
and 198,000 diesel engines.<br />
In this July 23, 1967 file photo, a man is taken into custody by police during the riots that engulfed the city for five<br />
days. Many Chaldean-owned businesses were affected.<br />
“<br />
All I remember is the sound<br />
of gunshots. I was swiftly<br />
snatched up by my mom,”<br />
recalled Carrie Davis, who lived<br />
through the Detroit Riots of 1967 as a<br />
child. “That was only the beginning<br />
of what would be a nightmare. Fire<br />
would later fill the skies … and the<br />
loud buzz and smell of burning electric<br />
wire [was] all around us.”<br />
In many ways, the Detroit Riots of<br />
1967 represent a turning point for the<br />
city. At the time, few could see into<br />
Detroit’s future. Distorted memories<br />
of life before the summer of ‘67 offer<br />
a nostalgic glimpse into what the<br />
city was and a painful image of what<br />
it could have been. Recollections<br />
of the riots offer a chance to see the<br />
moments that tore Detroit apart, a<br />
city pushed to the brink by economic<br />
stagnation in a changing world, a<br />
hostile police force, and a downtrodden<br />
minority population.<br />
The Rise of Detroit: A Brief History<br />
Driven by exponential growth in the<br />
automotive industry and the factory<br />
hands it required, Detroit doubled its<br />
population in the 1910s and served<br />
as the fourth most populous city in<br />
the United States. By 1930, it nearly<br />
cracked the list of the top-10 biggest<br />
cities worldwide. At that point, Detroit<br />
was home to nearly three times<br />
as many residents as it is now. The<br />
key innovation in Detroit’s industrial<br />
boom was the scalable manufacture of<br />
large machines by an unskilled labor<br />
force. This attracted many immigrants,<br />
including the city’s first Chaldeans.<br />
Its crowning achievement, and one<br />
that will last for centuries to come, is<br />
Detroit’s miraculous contribution to<br />
the Allied victory in World War II. Beginning<br />
in 1942, Detroit ceased production<br />
of all commercial automobiles and<br />
converted its factories to building tanks,<br />
jeeps, planes, ammunition, arms, and<br />
much more for the war effort. The prime<br />
challenge was to apply assembly-line<br />
strategies to building war machines, a<br />
feat that had yet to be accomplished.<br />
The success of Detroit’s grand efforts<br />
changed the course of history as we<br />
vastly outproduced the opposition.<br />
The Willow Run Bomber Plant built<br />
nearly half of the B-24 planes ever<br />
made. Ford and Willys-Overland built<br />
a combined 660,000 military vehicles<br />
originally called “blitz buggies.” These<br />
cars were the first jeeps ever created<br />
and the quality of the vehicle spawned<br />
an entire brand of cars that enjoy extraordinary<br />
popularity today.<br />
Chrysler’s Detroit Arsenal Tank<br />
PHOTO BY ALVIN QUINN/AP<br />
The Chaldean Mark<br />
Many of the first Chaldeans came to<br />
Detroit to participate in the wave of<br />
new labor joining the factory floors<br />
of the newfound automobile industry.<br />
The original Chaldeans came just after<br />
the turn of the century and secured<br />
jobs to send money home or eventually<br />
bring their families to the States.<br />
While some Chaldeans arrived in<br />
Canada and Mexico in 1899 and 1901,<br />
the first Chaldean in Detroit is probably<br />
Zaia Acho, who arrived around 1912 and<br />
started working for Ford. During WWI<br />
and the Sayfo, a genocide of Assyrians,<br />
Chaldeans, and Syriacs in the Middle<br />
East, many more Chaldeans made the<br />
journey. By 1925, there were about 35<br />
Chaldeans in Detroit, and their families<br />
began arriving at an exponential rate.<br />
The Chaldean immigrants were<br />
centralized in an area around 7 mile<br />
and Woodward that would later become<br />
known as “Chaldean Town.” The<br />
community began to build around that<br />
area, organizing churches, community<br />
centers, restaurants, and many other<br />
developments. As the older Chaldeans<br />
became seasoned Americans, they<br />
and their children began down an entrepreneurial<br />
path and specialized in<br />
the party store business. By 1923, there<br />
were already four Chaldean stores in<br />
the city. Today, about 60% of Chaldean<br />
households own a business.<br />
More and more Chaldeans came to<br />
Detroit and sought employment within<br />
their own community. It was intimidating<br />
to go into the world and seek out<br />
a job without knowing the language<br />
of the new country. The original Chaldeans<br />
were happy to employ newer immigrants<br />
in their stores because of the<br />
family ties and trust that was present<br />
in those from the same villages. This<br />
led to a compounding of knowledge on<br />
how to run stores, and Chaldean families<br />
looked to buy their own stores once<br />
they had saved enough money.<br />
16 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
A Great City Falls<br />
In the decades prior to the Riots, the<br />
process of decline slowly took root. A<br />
combination of mild factors contributed<br />
to the slow and steady decline of<br />
the once-burgeoning city. Automotive<br />
decentralization, which describes the<br />
process by which the automotive industry<br />
spread itself throughout metro<br />
Detroit, was a key factor. Between 1945<br />
and 1957, the “Big Three” auto companies<br />
built twenty-five new plants<br />
in suburban areas like Plymouth,<br />
Madison Heights, Wixom, Livonia,<br />
and Warren. Many lower-tier manufacturers<br />
that supported the plants with<br />
parts and machines relocated as well.<br />
A particularly salient example is<br />
that of Ford’s famous River Rouge complex.<br />
According to historian Thomas<br />
Sugrue, after its workers joined the<br />
United Automobile Workers union<br />
in 1941, Ford executives realized that<br />
such a large and centralized plant left<br />
the company increasingly vulnerable<br />
to strikes. River Rouge workers were<br />
known to be organized and racially<br />
diverse. To diffuse union power and<br />
reach new labor markets, Ford set up<br />
parallel operations in the suburbs. By<br />
1960, only 30,000 people worked at<br />
Rouge, down from over 100,000 at its<br />
peak in the 1930s. This was the beginning<br />
of the end of automotive production<br />
in the city of Detroit.<br />
As Detroit’s population exploded<br />
during WWII, it fell into a deep housing<br />
crisis, especially for the people who<br />
worked in its factories. The city’s Black<br />
population bore the brunt of the hardship<br />
as they were not welcome in many<br />
neighborhoods and new housing developments.<br />
Racial issues came to the<br />
forefront of politics as segregation continued<br />
to plague the city, which led to<br />
white flight from the city to the suburbs.<br />
In the early 1940s, the issue of segregation<br />
became seriously escalated.<br />
Frequent fights broke out over the racial<br />
makeup of housing projects and<br />
attempts to integrate factory work. In<br />
June 1943, a fight and subsequent riot<br />
broke out on Belle Isle in which 34<br />
people died. This and similar events<br />
changed many of the residents’ perspective<br />
on the city.<br />
White families relocated to the<br />
suburbs because of their perception<br />
that the city was becoming dangerous,<br />
as well as the promise of a new life offered<br />
by the spacious cities just outside<br />
of Detroit. This created a self-fulfilling<br />
prophecy: businesses followed<br />
suit and moved out of the city, which<br />
led to a more depressed and dangerous<br />
Detroit.<br />
The Black community, which slowly<br />
gained a greater share of Detroit’s<br />
population, was systematically disadvantaged<br />
in housing, employment,<br />
services, and infrastructure. Studies<br />
show they paid nearly 40% more in<br />
rent for the same units as Whites. Businesses<br />
moved away from their neighborhoods,<br />
and their housing units<br />
faced neglect and fell into disrepair. At<br />
the same time, the Black community<br />
in Detroit gained a sense of pride and<br />
purpose as a result of the growing Civil<br />
Rights Movement.<br />
The 1967 Detroit riots marked a<br />
significant turning point for the Chaldean<br />
community and the city as a<br />
whole. Following these riots and the<br />
decline of the automobile industry,<br />
many of Detroit’s wealthier residents<br />
and business owners left the city. This<br />
exodus had a double effect on the<br />
Chaldean community. First, it created<br />
a vacuum that Chaldean businesses,<br />
especially grocery stores, stepped in<br />
to fill. White business owners fled<br />
from the city and sold their destroyed<br />
businesses to eager Chaldeans. At the<br />
same time, Detroit would still never<br />
fully recover from the damage accrued<br />
during 1967.<br />
After the ‘60s, the Chaldean community<br />
remained resilient and continued<br />
to play a significant role in the city’s<br />
economy and social fabric, albeit under<br />
more challenging circumstances. Many<br />
Chaldeans who were able moved their<br />
families to the suburbs but continued<br />
to operate stores within the city.<br />
The Riot and the Chaldean Experience<br />
By the 1960s, race riots in urban areas<br />
were infamous for destroying large<br />
portions of cities. The Detroit Police<br />
Department was largely seen by the<br />
Black community as an abusive force<br />
that singled out their community. On<br />
the morning of July 23, 1967, cops raided<br />
an after-hours club and arrested 85<br />
people on 12th Street. A crowd began<br />
to form, and someone threw bottles<br />
at the police and their vehicles, who<br />
retreated quickly. The damage was<br />
done, however, and the riot only escalated<br />
from there. In less than an<br />
hour, thousands of people were on the<br />
Throughout the three days of unrest, store owners did what they could to protect<br />
their property: Signs with appeals for unity with their customers were the first<br />
choice but rifles served as backup. Jerry Yono is wearing a white T-shirt, on the<br />
right, with his late brother, Sam, to his left. Customer volunteers hold rifles.<br />
streets, looting whatever they could.<br />
Sharkey Hesano was in the National<br />
Guard when the riots broke out.<br />
He lived just three blocks from where<br />
the riots began, and his family owned<br />
a store that quickly succumbed to the<br />
riot. “I got called in at 6 a.m.,” he said.<br />
“We were bussed down to the police<br />
headquarters by Greektown.”<br />
Hesano and his crew were assigned<br />
to protect critical infrastructure<br />
like water treatment plants and power<br />
stations. It was mostly boring, he said,<br />
because rioters were focused on looting<br />
retail stores. He and his fellow<br />
service members walked perimeters<br />
around these critical properties but<br />
were never met with any resistance.<br />
Perhaps the most surprising thing<br />
for Hesano was his experience with<br />
non-rioters. During a break, he would<br />
go into a fast-food joint to refuel. He<br />
found that all the customers were<br />
endlessly thankful for his service and<br />
helping protect the city from the riots,<br />
so much so that he never paid for his<br />
own food.<br />
The next day, Hesano was deployed<br />
at the Jeffersonian Apartments, specifically<br />
a bank on the lower level that the<br />
government wanted to protect from<br />
looters. During parts of his rotation, he<br />
was stationed on the roof of the 30-story<br />
building, overlooking the city on fire.<br />
1967 continued on page 41<br />
PHOTO BY LEE BALTERMAN<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 17
FEATURE<br />
A Historic Recognition<br />
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin introduces resolution to<br />
support religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
For centuries, Christian communities<br />
in Iraq have served as<br />
soft targets for other groups to<br />
conquer. The evidence is laid out in<br />
history books, generational memories,<br />
and the stories of constant immigration<br />
that leads to today’s diaspora.<br />
The most recent enemy, known to<br />
the world as the Islamic State (ISIS),<br />
was one of the most evil our community<br />
has experienced. As noted in U.S. Rep.<br />
Elissa Slotkin’s resolution, ISIS committed<br />
countless atrocities against ethnic<br />
and religious minorities in Iraq and<br />
elsewhere. Murder, subjugation, forced<br />
conversion, kidnapping, human trafficking,<br />
torture, rape, and destruction<br />
of ancient artifacts are only some of the<br />
crimes committed against Chaldeans<br />
and other Christians in the region.<br />
ISIS looted and destroyed many<br />
Chaldean villages after its invasion began<br />
in the summer of 2014. Fortunately,<br />
many residents were warned and fled before<br />
ISIS arrived. Still others were killed<br />
or kidnapped. This left a sizable refugee<br />
population, and even after the defeat of<br />
ISIS in late 2017, few have returned to<br />
their dilapidated and destroyed towns.<br />
Efforts by the international community<br />
and the diaspora to rebuild the<br />
destroyed areas are rapidly expanding,<br />
but many Chaldeans would rather<br />
forget the old way of life and move to a<br />
safe city like Erbil or a different country<br />
altogether. Without the continuing<br />
support of the Iraq government, these<br />
old towns will fall off the map or become<br />
repurposed and their ancient<br />
treasures will die with them.<br />
Empty villages have since become<br />
the favorite target of land grabbers trying<br />
to abuse the precarious situation<br />
of Christians. They don’t expect these<br />
indigenous populations to return to<br />
their homes, and current policy is only<br />
aiding this way of thinking.<br />
That’s why Rep. Slotkin, whose 7th<br />
congressional district includes Lansing<br />
and extends as far East as South Lyon,<br />
introduced the resolution to address<br />
18 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
Elissa Slotkin speaks at the 20th Annual CACC Awards Dinner on April 28, <strong>2023</strong>.<br />
various Christian communities and call<br />
for Iraq to create an ongoing fund dedicated<br />
to rebuilding their towns.<br />
“Michigan’s vibrant Chaldean<br />
community has a long history in our<br />
state, which is why I met with Chaldean<br />
leaders in Iraq last fall as part of<br />
a Congressional Delegation to the Middle<br />
East,” Slotkin said in a statement<br />
to the Chaldean News. “I took what I<br />
learned back to D.C. and that’s why I’m<br />
introducing a resolution to uphold the<br />
human rights and dignity of religious<br />
G:\M\18\SLOTKI\SLOTKI_017.XML<br />
and ethnic minorities in Iraq.”<br />
Slotkin said it’s critical for U.S. policy<br />
118TH CONGRESS<br />
1ST SESSION<br />
to support the security, stability, integration,<br />
and political representation of various<br />
minority groups including Yezidis,<br />
Turkmen, Shabak, Sabaean-Mandeans,<br />
Kaka’i, and indigenous Christians.<br />
The resolution recognizes that<br />
these communities “have been an integral<br />
part of the cultural fabric and<br />
history of Iraq and the broader Middle<br />
East for millennia … internally displaced<br />
members of these religious and<br />
ethnic minority communities continue<br />
to face significant challenges to returning<br />
to their ancestral homelands.”<br />
The resolution has five main points of<br />
.....................................................................<br />
(Original Signature of Member)<br />
H. RES. ll<br />
Affirming the nature and importance of the support of the United States<br />
for the religious and ethnic minority survivors of genocide in Iraq.<br />
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES<br />
Ms. SLOTKIN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the<br />
Committee on lllllllllllllll<br />
RESOLUTION<br />
Affirming the nature and importance of the support of the<br />
United States for the religious and ethnic minority survivors<br />
of genocide in Iraq.<br />
action for the House of Representatives.<br />
The fundamental human right and<br />
dignity of the religious and ethnic minority<br />
communities of Iraq should be a<br />
policy priority of the United States and<br />
the international community.<br />
The restoration of security, stability,<br />
and economic opportunity as well as<br />
the safe return of displaced indigenous<br />
peoples to their homeland should be a<br />
policy priority of the United States and<br />
the international community.<br />
The restoration of homes, schools,<br />
churches, and other religious sites and<br />
community buildings should receive a<br />
specific and enduring budget allocation<br />
from the Iraqi Government as well<br />
as continued support from international<br />
aid donors.<br />
The effective representation in the<br />
government of indigenous populations,<br />
including those who are displaced, is<br />
essential to restoring and upholding<br />
the rights of these communities.<br />
The Secretary of State should support<br />
greater regional integration for<br />
minority groups in Iraq and promote<br />
opportunities for affected minority<br />
groups to achieve greater administrative<br />
autonomy within the federal structure<br />
of the Republic of Iraq.<br />
For millennia, Christians in the<br />
Middle East have lived under the rule of<br />
someone else and have had to give up<br />
control over their own lives. Rarely have<br />
they been free from an overbearing influence,<br />
whether it’s Persians, Parthians,<br />
Sassanians, Islamic caliphates, Mongols,<br />
Ottomans, the British, or the nation<br />
of Iraq, these indigenous communities<br />
have long struggled for independence.<br />
The resolution’s call for greater administrative<br />
autonomy is a challenge<br />
to that history. Many efforts have been<br />
made to create a government or nation<br />
out of the minorities in northern Iraq<br />
especially. After the Sayfo, a genocide of<br />
Chaldeans and Assyrians in the Middle<br />
East, and the end of WWI, indigenous<br />
communities proposed a sovereign<br />
Assyro-Chaldean nation in the North of<br />
Iraq at the Paris Peace Conference, but<br />
were neglected by the British empire<br />
that gained control of the territory.<br />
This was the most recent serious<br />
effort to gain autonomy from a higher<br />
power, however, new demands are being<br />
made for administrative autonomy,<br />
and this resolution only adds to those<br />
voices.
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 19
FEATURE<br />
Chamber Advocacy Pays Off<br />
Michigan reps introduce bills to amend liquor code<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
Legislators in the Michigan House<br />
of Representatives have introduced<br />
two bipartisan bills to<br />
amend Public Act 58, which is widely referred<br />
to as the liquor code. After months<br />
of advocacy and planning by the Chaldean<br />
American Chamber of Commerce<br />
(CACC) on behalf of the Chaldean community’s<br />
liquor store and supermarket<br />
owners, the bills can finally be considered<br />
by elected representatives.<br />
For decades, the Chaldean community<br />
has entrenched its position<br />
in metro Detroit by selling liquor at<br />
convenience stores and supermarkets.<br />
The structure of these businesses<br />
bodes particularly well for an immigrant<br />
to raise their family and tap their<br />
community for help. Now, stores that<br />
sell liquor may be getting a raise.<br />
There are two bills being proposed<br />
to help retailers. The first, House Bill<br />
(HB) 4757, amends the liquor control<br />
code of 1998 and increases the state<br />
minimum percentage profit earned on<br />
liquor sales. The second bill, HB 4758,<br />
would restrict the Michigan Liquor<br />
Control Commission from considering<br />
violations of the liquor code older than<br />
two years when it decides to issue,<br />
deny, suspend, or revoke a license.<br />
As someone who grew up in metro<br />
Detroit, Representative Samantha<br />
Steckloff, who represents Farmington<br />
and Farmington Hills, said she knows<br />
the value of neighborhood liquor<br />
stores. That’s why she sponsored both<br />
bills. “I am so proud to sponsor this bipartisan<br />
package that would ease the<br />
Michigan Liquor Control Code,” she<br />
said. Steckloff added that this package<br />
will help small business owners<br />
thrive, boosting our economy. Currently,<br />
small business liquor retailers face<br />
stiff competition from big box stores<br />
alongside rising wages and costs.<br />
At the current moment, the state<br />
minimum retail price for a bottle of liquor<br />
is set at a fixed 17% higher than<br />
what a retailer purchased the item for. In<br />
recent decades, big-box and corporate<br />
stores have taken control of the liquor<br />
market. As large businesses that make<br />
money through high volume of sales,<br />
they can afford to sell liquor at the state<br />
minimums, which forces small business<br />
owners to do the same to compete.<br />
The current margin of 17% on liquor,<br />
however, fails to cover the overhead<br />
costs of many small businesses.<br />
One study used by the CACC said it<br />
costs the average liquor store owner<br />
24% of their gross profit just to stay<br />
open. Effectively, small stores are taking<br />
a loss on liquor sales. If this bill<br />
passes, that number will change to<br />
35%, doubling the margin for big-box<br />
and small business owners alike and<br />
allowing them to make a profit. The<br />
margin of 35% aligns more closely with<br />
the average markup in other states, according<br />
to the CACC.<br />
Representative Graham Filler, who<br />
sponsored HB 4578 and represents a<br />
rural district that overlaps with Saginaw,<br />
Gratiot, and Clinton counties,<br />
wants to help reduce the bureaucratic<br />
burden on small business owners. “I<br />
have been talking for years with Martin<br />
Manna, the Chaldean community, and<br />
other small business owners about the<br />
best way the Michigan Legislature can<br />
support small businesses, including<br />
convenience stores,” he said.<br />
Tom Kuhn represents mainly Troy<br />
and Sterling Heights. He sponsored<br />
both bills, and recognized the CACC<br />
as the primary reason for the potential<br />
changes to the liquor code. “The Chaldean<br />
American Chamber of Commerce<br />
has served as the catalyst, educating<br />
legislators on behalf of local businesses,”<br />
he said, adding that without the<br />
CACC’s leadership, the bills would not<br />
have been introduced.<br />
Overall, Michigan legislators offered<br />
the bipartisan nature of the bills<br />
as the main reason it has staying power<br />
and the potential to pass the legislature.<br />
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 21
FEATURE<br />
The Aramaic Project<br />
Preserving an ancient language<br />
BY WEAM NAMOU<br />
Caption<br />
Clockwise from above: His Excellency Mar George Alencherry, Major<br />
Archbishop of Syro Malabar Catholic Church; His Excellency Mar Francis<br />
Kallabat with an Aramaic tutor and parishioner of St. Joseph Chaldean<br />
Catholic Church and Subdeacon Samir Nissian; Rev. Dr. Joseph J. Palackal.<br />
The Aramaic language reached<br />
South India long before the<br />
Christian era. According to Rev.<br />
Dr. George Kurukkoor, a philologist<br />
and professor of Sanskrit and Malayalam<br />
languages, it arrived as far back<br />
as the 7th century BC when Sumerians,<br />
Babylonians, Jews, and others<br />
from the Middle East came to India in<br />
pursuit of commercial trade. In later<br />
centuries, its importance was replaced<br />
by other languages.<br />
Like Iraqi Christians, the Christians<br />
in Kerala, India, trace the origin of their<br />
faith to St. Thomas the Apostle. Until<br />
the 1960s, they celebrated the liturgy<br />
in Aramaic but over time, the language<br />
and its songs began to face extinction<br />
in the Syro Malabar Church, which has<br />
3.25 million members. This is one of the<br />
eight independent churches among the<br />
St. Thomas Christians (6 million out of<br />
about 30 million Christians in India)<br />
that follow the Chaldean (East Syriac)<br />
liturgical tradition.<br />
This inspired Rev. Dr. Joseph J.<br />
Palackal, an Indic musicologist, singer,<br />
and composer, to initiate the Aramaic<br />
Project.<br />
“The concept started after lifelong<br />
preparations,” said Palackal. In the<br />
1970s when he was a seminarian, he<br />
heard a priest (Father Probus Perumalil,<br />
CMI) sing a song with unfamiliar<br />
melodies and instrumentals, and he<br />
was mesmerized by its uniqueness. “I<br />
didn’t know at that time that it was Aramaic<br />
and came from the Middle East<br />
with the influence of the Chaldean<br />
Church.”<br />
In 1982, he wrote an article about<br />
the need to preserve this music’s heritage.<br />
He did his PhD dissertation on<br />
Aramaic chants in India. In 2006, he<br />
organized a recording of these songs<br />
by Rev. George Kurukkoor. He also<br />
worked on a commercial CD of Syriac<br />
chants; this has become a collector’s<br />
item because most of the singers have<br />
since died.<br />
“The Aramaic language has undergone<br />
change in its pronunciation, vocabulary,<br />
and syntax in the Syro-Malabar<br />
Church in Kerala,” Palackal said.<br />
“All this treasure will be lost if we don’t<br />
document it and preserve it for future<br />
generations.”<br />
The most challenging part of the<br />
project was locating Syriac (Aramaic)<br />
singers across Kerala. The word “Syr<br />
iac,” of Greek origin, was associated<br />
with the region in Syria conquered<br />
by the Greeks. Jose George is<br />
a Chaldean from India who resides in<br />
Troy, Michigan. He explains that it was<br />
brought to India by the Portuguese<br />
in the 15th century. The Portuguese,<br />
who colonized the country, viewed St.<br />
Thomas Christians as Nestorians and<br />
heretics and wanted them to speak<br />
Latin, Portuguese, or English. India<br />
thereafter adopted “Syriac” to refer to<br />
Aramaic, although they still use both<br />
words.<br />
“We don’t say Sureth because we<br />
don’t know that word; it’s used in<br />
Iraq,” said George. An engineer who<br />
provides IT services and consulting,<br />
he got involved in the Aramaic Project<br />
in 2016. He has since interviewed<br />
many people include Father Manuel<br />
Boji, Chaldean Catholic Christians<br />
from the Shlama Foundation, and<br />
most recently, Dr. Palackal.<br />
A challenge for Dr. Palackal was<br />
convincing the hierarchy of his church<br />
about the significance of this project<br />
and the importance of the language. “I<br />
still haven’t achieved that goal,” he said,<br />
but it is his dream to do so because once<br />
they’re convinced, they could ask the<br />
government of India to contact UNISCO<br />
and ask them to declare the Aramaic<br />
language in India an endangered language<br />
and request for financial support<br />
to preserve it. “Then we can do much<br />
more,” he said. “We can make an impact<br />
on an international level.”<br />
Palackal introduced two Aramaic<br />
chants to younger generations of Syro-<br />
Malabar Catholic Christians in America<br />
for the first time in 2013, at the National<br />
Basilica in Washington, DC, during the<br />
solemn celebration of Qurbana. There<br />
were 120 young singers from across<br />
America and they took to it—in fact,<br />
they were fascinated by it.<br />
“Now this has become an essential<br />
component of Qurbana in Malayalam<br />
and in English among the young<br />
people in America,” he said. “I didn’t<br />
think this would happen in my lifetime,<br />
but I’m happy to see that.”<br />
Recently, Palackal witnessed a<br />
Syro Malabar wedding in Queens<br />
where the young people sang in Aramaic.<br />
“That was a moment of great<br />
satisfaction,” he said. A very unexpected<br />
development was when a<br />
team from the Dharmaram, CMI study<br />
house seminary in Bangalore initiated<br />
an effort to compose new text in<br />
Aramaic. They wrote the poem and<br />
asked Palackal to compose it.<br />
St. Thomas Anthem<br />
With St. Thomas<br />
Our father,<br />
We glorify you,<br />
One who enlivened us<br />
By enlightening<br />
Our darkness-filled eyes.<br />
With him we proclaim<br />
Your revelations<br />
without doubt.<br />
Constantly we utter:<br />
Mar Walah, Mar Walah<br />
“The song is first to St. Thomas, but<br />
it is also dedicated to Jesus Christ,<br />
so I liked it and composed it,” said<br />
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Palackal. “It’s now slowly becoming a prayer song in<br />
gatherings. Now we’re doing other songs, one which<br />
a community in Chicago took and assigned a priest<br />
to use it. I didn’t think I would live to see the fruits of<br />
my labor.” The project consists of seven parts:<br />
• Part I – Syro Malabar Church<br />
• Part II – Assyrian Church of the East<br />
• Part III – Chaldean Catholic Church<br />
• Part VI – Malankara Mar Thoma<br />
Syrian Church<br />
• Part V – Syrian Orthodox Churches<br />
• Part VI – Syro Malankara Church<br />
• Part VII – Music of Kerala Jews<br />
Five to ten years from now he envisions all the Syro-Malabar<br />
communities across the world developing a concept<br />
of bilingual Qurbana; one in the local language—whether<br />
English, Hindi, Malayalam, or another language, but<br />
to also incorporate a few hymns in Aramaic.<br />
“People will thus know that this used to be our liturgy,”<br />
said Palackal. “That might encourage some of<br />
them to learn the language at a deeper level and get a<br />
mastery of the language to uncover the treasures hidden<br />
in its tradition.”<br />
Another dream of Palackal’s is that his communities<br />
recite the Lord’s Prayer in the Aramaic language.<br />
“It’s an honor and privilege to utter those words<br />
which came from the mouth of Jesus,” he said. “Our<br />
umbilical cord will be reconnected 2,000 years back to<br />
the time when Jesus said that prayer.”<br />
He added, “Just by singing, ‘Marwala’ (My lord),<br />
that’s a profession of faith. In one phrase, you compress<br />
the entire Catholicity. You’re praising the Lord in<br />
your undivided humanity and divinity without doubt.<br />
What a profession of faith! We spend so many hours<br />
discussing pathology. Here is perfect pathology. Perfect<br />
explanation who Jesus is – he is God and Man!”<br />
To learn more, visit https://www.aramaicproject.com/.<br />
His Beatitude Patriarch Mar Louis Sako visits<br />
Mar Hormiz church in Angamali Kerala, India.<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 23
FEATURE<br />
Remembering<br />
Clarence Dass<br />
BY CHRISTINA SALEM<br />
As we mark the one-year anniversary of Clarence<br />
Dass’s death, I’d like to memorialize<br />
him for those of you who never had the privilege<br />
of knowing him.<br />
It’s so easy to begin this by listing off all the accomplishments<br />
that Clarence contributed to the community<br />
around the world. Many knew him for his friendly<br />
smile, witty one-liners, or the fact that he battled stage<br />
four colon cancer behind closed doors and still managed<br />
to provide pro-bono services for the Iraqi community<br />
while they fought deportations, alongside his<br />
own determination and valor to live life to the fullest.<br />
Clarence’s legacy will cement him as a timeless<br />
pioneer of everlasting grace and savvy wisdom in the<br />
multiple communities he led. However, Clarence was<br />
more than his achievements and his illness. He was a<br />
friend, a confidant, a man of God, a father of twins, a<br />
husband, a son, a brother, and my first cousin.<br />
We grew up together side-by-side for the 29 years I<br />
had with him. He set the tone for so many of the games<br />
and activities we played as kids. He was like my oldest<br />
brother (and the leader of my three brothers when<br />
they needed one). He was the biggest practical jokester<br />
but also had the deepest ocean of compassion and empathy<br />
for anyone who came to him with their most vulnerable<br />
feelings and secrets. He was patient and kind<br />
and had a calming charisma that would fill any room<br />
he entered. When he was around, people felt safe and<br />
enveloped by a peaceful joy that only Clarence could<br />
produce.<br />
I’ll never forget my sigh of relief when he surprised<br />
everyone in 2013 at my aunt’s apartment during<br />
our trip to Denmark for our little cousin’s wedding.<br />
I had someone closer to my age to hang out<br />
with—someone that spoke the same language as<br />
me! Since my aunties and other cousins weren’t native<br />
English speakers, he was the ideal companion to<br />
explore the city of Copenhagen with. We decided to<br />
give ourselves the nickname “Team USA”. Little did I<br />
know my experience and conversations with him on<br />
that trip would plant seeds which would change the<br />
trajectory of my life.<br />
He was in a brand-new role at the time for Oakland<br />
County; I didn’t really know what that meant and neither<br />
did my cousin, who asked him. It turned out Clarence<br />
had received a promotion to become prosecutor<br />
for the Special Victims Unit for the county. Yes, he<br />
was representing victims of child abuse and domestic<br />
violence, like they did on the TV show SVU. He was<br />
locking up the bad guys and giving the voiceless a microphone.<br />
I remember looking at him and thinking,<br />
“Wow. This is what a hero looks like.” He was a reallife<br />
hero to so many people. I never knew someone I<br />
was so close to could be so special and could selflessly<br />
give to so many people. It seemed so Christ-like. I was<br />
instantly inspired to change my entire life, which was<br />
already in a state of flux to begin with.<br />
When I got home, I changed my major from marketing<br />
to journalism, because after hearing that conversation<br />
I too, had dreams of being a prosecutor.<br />
When I told him how I made that choice and wanted to<br />
go to law school he instantly told me that as a founding<br />
member of our inside joke of “Team USA,” that his<br />
success was my success. To have someone like Clarence<br />
going to bat for you is something I can share with<br />
all the amazing people he’s helped, but when my big<br />
cousin who seemed so out of this world and amazing<br />
said those words to me, I was filled with an unshakeable<br />
confidence. I remember watching him in court<br />
pursuing justice in action, and it was like watching the<br />
righteous defend the meek, innocent, and forgotten.<br />
The wit and strength Clarence portrayed in a myriad of<br />
circumstances was spectacular to witness.<br />
If I ever wanted to reach the levels he did, I felt<br />
like his hand would always be there to stretch out to<br />
mine and help pull me to higher heights. He never let<br />
me down with those words, and although I strayed<br />
and shifted paths many times, he always ensured me<br />
that whatever my choices were—his success was still<br />
Top: The Dass Family at a baby shower for Clarence<br />
and his wife Renee in anticipation of their<br />
twins’ arrival. Left: Clarence’s favorite quote from<br />
his favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”<br />
my success. (Go, “Team USA!”)<br />
In that decade after the wedding in Denmark he<br />
founded his own law firm, the Dass Law Firm; became<br />
an adjunct professor at Rochester College; was the Assistant<br />
Prosecutor for Oakland County from 2012-2016;<br />
served as president of Leadership Oakland, and on the<br />
Board of Directors and Alumni Association of Wayne<br />
State University; served as an Advisory Board Member<br />
of Gilda’s Club of Metro Detroit; won a Community Service<br />
Award Winner from the Oakland County Bar Association<br />
in 2017; and an Unsung Hero Award from the<br />
State Bar of Michigan in 2019, all while being an on-air<br />
legal expert for WXYZ Channel 7.<br />
These accolades don’t begin to scratch the surface<br />
of the number of lives Clarence touched in his short<br />
time on Earth—lives that extend far past Michigan<br />
and the United States. His kindness and love were<br />
known by members of our community around the<br />
world. His messages always seemed to have a timelessness<br />
to them, and I cherish one of the last nuggets<br />
of wisdom he shared with me before his passing:<br />
“You are the only you.” Clarence managed to forge<br />
a path we had never seen anyone take in our community<br />
and that last line reminded me that I have a<br />
similar path to follow, one that is constantly evolving<br />
and completely untraveled.<br />
Now I’m proud to carry on that legacy by supporting<br />
his family and wife and their twins, ensuring<br />
my success is their success. The twins will know the<br />
great love their parents shared and how their father<br />
had the ability to wholeheartedly connect with others<br />
because of his awareness of the preciousness of<br />
presence in an overstimulated world. They’ll be able<br />
to play the same games their father did with us as<br />
kids. They will hear about all the people he helped<br />
and feel seen and validated for their experiences.<br />
They’ll know even in his last days he was mentoring<br />
troubled youth in Mar Addai Church in Oak Park that<br />
no one knew about until after his passing.<br />
When the time comes, I am confident the newest<br />
additions of “Team USA” will continue to fight the<br />
battles of the less fortunate and strive to give a voice<br />
to the voiceless the same way their father did.<br />
24 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
Educational programs<br />
Registration open.<br />
Please call for an appointment.<br />
All Nationalities Welcome!<br />
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE<br />
GED (HIGH SCHOOL EQUIVALENCY DEGREE)<br />
Provides individuals English<br />
instruction at basic/beginner and<br />
intermediate/advanced levels<br />
Small group instruction for<br />
individuals working towards<br />
their GED<br />
LITTLE SCHOLARS PRESCHOOL<br />
CITIZENSHIP PREPARATION<br />
Prepares children for kindergarten<br />
through a variety of emergent<br />
literacy, early learning and<br />
development opportunities<br />
Offers instruction and training for<br />
successful completion of the U.S.<br />
Citizenship and Immigration Services<br />
(USCIS) Naturalization interview<br />
We can’t wait to see you!<br />
Want to learn more? Please contact Rachel Rose at<br />
Rachel.rose@chaldeanfoundation.org or call (586) 722-7253<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 25
FEATURE<br />
Reinventing GG<br />
Never too late for a second act<br />
BY CRYSTAL KASSAB JABIRO<br />
Though some women approach<br />
turning 50 with trepidation, GG<br />
Benitez is arriving at that mile<br />
marker with confidence.<br />
With her 29-year-old daughter<br />
Alexis’s marriage a few months ago,<br />
her 19-year-old daughter Daniella completing<br />
her first year at Loyola, and her<br />
17-year-old son Gabriel entering his senior<br />
year of high school, GG decided to<br />
fuse her public relations skills with her<br />
affection for travel.<br />
Not-so-much empty nester syndrome,<br />
just a sort of “second act” for<br />
a mom who—after three decades—will<br />
have some time to pursue more of<br />
her passions away from pick-ups and<br />
drop-offs and all the other hectic dayto-day<br />
activities involving children.<br />
GG, a nickname of her birth name<br />
Ghada Ghattas, graduated from the<br />
University of California San Diego Revelle<br />
in 1995 with a degree in economics.<br />
She worked in pharmaceutical<br />
sales for seven years before opening<br />
GG Benitez Public Relations.<br />
While building her firm for the past<br />
14 years, she also co-founded Aloisia<br />
Beauty, whose products have been featured<br />
on the Today Show and in People<br />
magazine. As if she was not busy<br />
enough, she decided to obtain her<br />
real estate license after she traveled to<br />
Dubai last November.<br />
Mixing Cultures and Interests<br />
GG is proud of her Arab and Chaldean<br />
heritage. Her father is Jordanian, and<br />
her mother is Chaldean, so she naturally<br />
felt an affection for the Middle<br />
East. She also had some preconceived<br />
notions of what it would be like for a<br />
strong American-born woman like her<br />
to visit that region.<br />
Dubai broke those misconceptions<br />
down for her, making the 16-hour<br />
flight from Los Angeles worth it. GG<br />
felt most connected to her heritage<br />
after she visited Al-Fahidi, a historical<br />
neighborhood that takes you back to<br />
the 18th century with their souks, chai<br />
GG Benitez<br />
houses and coffee houses, and Arabic<br />
everywhere. By the second day, she<br />
felt like previously she had been missing<br />
out on something so special.<br />
“I was just in awe. ‘How did they<br />
make a desert look like this?’ and ‘How<br />
did they build this palm in the water?’<br />
It’s almost like a utopia,” GG said. “It<br />
was the combination of the cultural<br />
history, the food, and the shore… Everyone<br />
was just so happy to be there.”<br />
She wanted to be a part of it.<br />
“I was so fascinated by the incredible<br />
growth of Dubai, and started to<br />
research it,” GG revealed. “I discovered<br />
that real estate is one of their top<br />
sectors, so that’s what motivated me to<br />
immerse myself into their real estate<br />
market and understand how it works<br />
and how I can be part of their recordbreaking<br />
opportunities.”<br />
GG went back to Dubai for three<br />
weeks in February. There she connected<br />
with top developers and real estate<br />
associates. That’s where she learned<br />
that Dubai is very competitively priced<br />
with Southern California (SoCal).<br />
“It is much less expensive to buy<br />
waterfront property in Dubai than<br />
in coastal California,” asserted GG.<br />
“There are no capital gains on property<br />
taxes in Dubai, and by investing there,<br />
you can get a ‘golden visa’, which is a<br />
long-term residency authorization.”<br />
Dubai recently surpassed the United<br />
States for the first time in migration<br />
numbers of ultra-high net-worth<br />
individuals. That is why GG secured a<br />
position in Dubai as a real estate agent,<br />
and when she came back home, she obtained<br />
her California real estate license.<br />
Soon after, she launched her new<br />
international luxury real estate venture,<br />
GG Benitez International. Now,<br />
she is selling properties in southern<br />
coastal California and Dubai, and she<br />
is part of Realty Executives Dillon in<br />
San Diego—primarily Coronado, Del<br />
Mar, and La Jolla.<br />
GG has already sold investment<br />
properties in Dubai to Chaldeans in<br />
San Diego and is really excited about<br />
creating this bridge from the US to<br />
Dubai. Her partner there has 18 years<br />
of experience. She will be returning<br />
there for three months at the end of<br />
this year.<br />
“I’ve never been anywhere as culturally<br />
diverse, where nearly 90% of<br />
the people are expats speaking every<br />
language,” GG said. “They’re creators<br />
and movers and shakers. I just love it!”<br />
Enthralled by Dubai, GG pivoted<br />
her focus to a new endeavor that landed<br />
her there part-time. She reinvented<br />
the career side of herself as a luxury<br />
real estate maven but will still be taking<br />
on selective PR clients while growing<br />
Aloisia Beauty.<br />
She is still the same real, generous,<br />
vivacious GG; she is still the same<br />
kind, helpful, and loving wife to Daniel<br />
Benitez and mom of three (four if<br />
you include their goldendoodle Romeo)<br />
who works hard, enjoys the company<br />
of family and friends, and seeks<br />
new travel adventures.<br />
GG hopes that other middle-aged<br />
female professionals who are becoming<br />
empty nesters will realize that it<br />
is never too late to make a change and<br />
follow your passions; that they too can<br />
reinvent themselves while staying true<br />
to who they are.<br />
For more information, go to www.<br />
ggbenitezinternational.com or follow<br />
her on IG: ggbenitezinternational. To<br />
discuss luxury real estate in SoCal or<br />
Dubai, call (619) 339-7978.<br />
26 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
CAREER<br />
SERVICES<br />
WALK-IN DAYS:<br />
MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY<br />
8:30AM - 4:00PM<br />
WHAT WE DO<br />
The Career Services Department at the Chaldean Community Foundation offers one-on-one assistance to help<br />
clients identify goals and develop careers.<br />
• CAREER FAIRS<br />
• COVER LETTER WRITING<br />
• EMPLOYER REFERRALS<br />
• FAFSA COMPLETION<br />
• JOB APPLICATION COMPLETION<br />
• MOCK INTERVIEWS<br />
• RESUME BUILDING<br />
• TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES<br />
CHALDEAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION<br />
3601 15 MILE RD<br />
STERLING HEIGHTS, MI 48310<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 27
FEATURE<br />
Above: Ishtar Restaurant in Sterling<br />
Heights offers Mediterranean cuisine<br />
such as lentil soup and grilled lamb;<br />
Left: In the same plaza, Dream Market<br />
offers a diverse selection of international,<br />
Arabic, and ethnic items.<br />
East Side Story<br />
Bridging the divide<br />
BY ADHID MIRI, PHD<br />
Albert Einstein has been credited<br />
with saying the only constant<br />
in life is change. Accordingly,<br />
the Chaldean community is in a<br />
constant state of change, evolving on<br />
all levels– social, educational, professional,<br />
economic, and geographic. This<br />
story pertains to the latter two levels.<br />
The Great Divide<br />
The first group of Chaldeans to gather<br />
in Michigan settled along the 7 Mile<br />
corridor in Detroit. The tightly knit<br />
and walkable community known as<br />
“Chaldean Town” included homes,<br />
shops, markets, and coffee houses. As<br />
they prospered, some moved north to<br />
the suburbs, crossing the Eight Mile<br />
divide. Southfield, Oak Park, and Sterling<br />
Heights may be the first places<br />
successful Chaldeans relocated to, but<br />
in the last few decades, West Bloomfield,<br />
Bloomfield Hills, and Commerce<br />
have welcomed their share as well.<br />
Unlike the north/south geographic<br />
and financial divide that defined the<br />
development of the community during<br />
the slow immigration years of the<br />
last century, a new east/west thinking<br />
seems to have entered the vernacular.<br />
This new divide is a figment of the<br />
imagination and lacks focus, making<br />
it ingenuous and erroneous—requiring<br />
clarity and correction.<br />
Terms like “Boater,” “Eastsider,”<br />
“Storechi,” and “Tahinchi” are degrading<br />
and should not be used. These<br />
derogatory terms have been applied<br />
to new immigrants and implies that<br />
people who arrived on boats, clinging<br />
to the ways of the old country, are not<br />
integrating into American culture. It is<br />
a stereotype with a negative connotation,<br />
a contrived division that does not<br />
represent our identity.<br />
The term “Storechi” (referring to<br />
owners of a convenience store) is outdated<br />
but still used. The wording is a<br />
subtle sign of ill-informed mindsets,<br />
and one wonders what might lie behind<br />
the misconception. Today, less<br />
than 16% of Chaldeans own convenience<br />
stores; they have shifted their<br />
interest to gas stations, cellular stores,<br />
hotels, real-estate, development, and<br />
professional services.<br />
Undelivered expectations, discrimination<br />
against newcomers, the blame<br />
game, and prejudices on both sides<br />
play an important role in perpetuating<br />
this fiction, although clashes of real<br />
interest or disagreements of substance<br />
surface from time to time. It is helpful<br />
to unbundle some of the key assumptions<br />
underlying the divide and check<br />
each one’s validity.<br />
This new divide does not seem to<br />
correlate with measures of integration<br />
or modernization. Certainly, there is<br />
a difference in the immigration timeline<br />
along with a steady evolution of<br />
people in Chaldean immigrant communities;<br />
however, one marked difference<br />
could be the economic status of<br />
inhabitants and access to education in<br />
each area.<br />
Myths and Misconceptions<br />
Although we acknowledge there is<br />
a divide, the idea that East Side and<br />
West Side Chaldeans have turned into<br />
discrete camps divided by many issues<br />
is a misconception. Apart from<br />
their relatively varied per capita incomes,<br />
the two groups have a lot in<br />
common besides just their shared<br />
Chaldean history. However, Chaldeans<br />
as a single “social bloc” are<br />
about as diverse as any other community<br />
in the US.<br />
Twenty years after the “big bang”<br />
immigration and refugee crisis that<br />
started with the US invasion of Iraq in<br />
2003, one would expect the dividing<br />
line between pre- and post-invasion<br />
myths and distinctions to have faded<br />
away. According to our observations<br />
and community members’ commentary,<br />
the opposite appears to be the<br />
case. The rift is often perceived to<br />
be one of the biggest challenges for<br />
the cohesion of the community, although<br />
the last three years have seen<br />
a decline in immigration numbers<br />
and the rift may be growing smaller.<br />
In addition to being immigrants<br />
from the same country and culture,<br />
there are many issues where the interests<br />
of the two groups are well<br />
aligned. One is the shared interest in<br />
a successful future, well-funded organizations,<br />
common goals, advocacy,<br />
and community interest policy that<br />
is based on accurate census data that<br />
can help reduce the gap in economic<br />
development among the community<br />
members and increase the profile of<br />
the community.<br />
Job security tops the priority list<br />
for newcomers, and there is no doubt<br />
that the industrial East Side is very<br />
different from the West Side marketplace.<br />
For the most part, issues result<br />
from weaknesses in governance and<br />
lack of effective community institutions—issues<br />
the Chaldean Community<br />
Foundation (CCF) is working to<br />
remedy. It will take considerable time<br />
to create the required institutional ca-<br />
28 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
Above, right: Palm Sweets Bakery and Cafe, located next door to Ishtar, is the<br />
perfect after dinner destination for a wide range of traditional sweets.<br />
pacity, and the legacy of six decades<br />
of immigration is certainly an additional<br />
handicap.<br />
It may be overoptimistic to assume<br />
that the engagement process would<br />
remedy these deficits within a few<br />
years. But there is hope that over time,<br />
the situation will improve as it has<br />
in other communities. The real challenge<br />
for the Chaldean community is<br />
to develop incentives to support this<br />
process and sharpen the instruments<br />
to combat misinformation and misconceptions.<br />
Investments in the East Side<br />
A check of the experience of the past<br />
twenty years demonstrates that altogether,<br />
the community expansion and<br />
contributions to the East Side of the<br />
metro Detroit tri-county area has been<br />
an impressive success story.<br />
Over the last few years, nearly<br />
all the retail shops along Ryan and<br />
Dequindre Roads and 12 through 16<br />
Mile’s intersections have become occupied<br />
by Chaldean stores, clinics,<br />
pastry shops, restaurants, and markets—enough<br />
to feed the Middle East!<br />
Shopping centers, services and commercial<br />
real estate owned by Chaldean<br />
families are everywhere you look.<br />
Major organizations like the Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation, the<br />
Chaldean Catholic Diocese, churches,<br />
social clubs, and banquet facilities<br />
have found homes where the community<br />
lives. This shows commitment and<br />
determination to grow and expand.<br />
Our Chaldean community is succeeding<br />
and contributing throughout<br />
the state of Michigan. The city of<br />
Sterling Heights is a prime example.<br />
The community invested $10 million<br />
in the development and expansion<br />
of the 30,000 square foot Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation facility at 15<br />
Mile and Ryan Road.<br />
Sterling Heights, voted recently<br />
as the safest city in the United States,<br />
will also house the CCF’s $30 million<br />
affordable housing mixed use development<br />
with 9,000 square feet of<br />
commercial space on the ground floor<br />
on Van Dyke Road between M-59 and<br />
19 Mile Road.<br />
Conclusion<br />
We can’t firmly determine which of the<br />
cultural systems of East Side or West<br />
Side Chaldean communities is more<br />
advantageous. What is more important<br />
is how people of both sides respect<br />
and accept each other’s values,<br />
path and living system.<br />
Today as well as in the future, our<br />
organizations, churches, social clubs,<br />
and civic activists from both sides<br />
should consult with each other more<br />
frequently, take joint initiatives across<br />
the divide, and help find common<br />
ground for collaboration and unity. Investing<br />
more community and cultural<br />
resources, promoting round tables<br />
educational discussions, and sharing<br />
civil society activities could make a<br />
difference in keeping our community<br />
united and moving forward.<br />
Wherever we live, a greater awareness<br />
of these facts can help us all understand<br />
our own minds a little better. We<br />
are one people; the differences are imaginary,<br />
irrational, and sentimental.<br />
Sources: 100 Questions and Answers<br />
about Chaldean Americans by<br />
Michigan State University School of<br />
Journalism; Chaldean Iraqi American<br />
Association of Michigan; Chaldeans in<br />
Detroit by Jacob Bacall; Wikipedia.<br />
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 29
CHALDEAN PIONEERS<br />
A Self-Made Man<br />
Jerry Yono’s story<br />
BY CAL ABBO<br />
Jerry Yono’s story begins in the<br />
famed town of Telkeppe, Iraq, on<br />
June 7, 1940. Most were farmers<br />
back then, according to Jerry, and his<br />
father was no different. His most nascent<br />
memory is walking to and from<br />
the well to fetch water.<br />
His mother, Hayat Yono, is from Mosul,<br />
and her family mostly spoke Arabic.<br />
Jerry’s father Aziz brought her to<br />
live in Telkeppe. He had an uncle who<br />
had lived in the United States for years.<br />
“I remember my house,” Jerry recalled,<br />
“and the dirt street in front of<br />
us. We had a nice home. But it was not<br />
an easy life. Not easy at all … Everybody<br />
always talked about going to America.<br />
A beautiful country. A new life.”<br />
At 9 years old, his life changed forever<br />
when his family decided to leave<br />
the village.<br />
First Steps<br />
According to Jerry, young Iraqi boys<br />
were prone to kidnapping, especially<br />
when traveling through the Middle<br />
East. “In those days, they used to<br />
put earrings on the children so they<br />
couldn’t be kidnapped,” he said, remembering<br />
how they changed his appearance<br />
to make his travels safer. The<br />
journey was a long one, but his family<br />
eventually made it to Detroit, uniting<br />
with his uncle and the small-but-growing<br />
Chaldean community.<br />
“There must’ve been a foot of snow<br />
when I arrived,” Jerry said. “I couldn’t<br />
believe my eyes.”<br />
Opportunity, in the Oxford dictionary,<br />
means “a set of circumstances that<br />
makes it possible to do something.”<br />
The land of opportunity does not guarantee<br />
comfort nor success. It must be<br />
earned. For Jerry and his family, that<br />
set of circumstances meant living in<br />
his uncle’s attic for half a year when<br />
they arrived.<br />
Aziz went to work as a baker. He<br />
worked on a factory line because he<br />
couldn’t speak English and it was difficult<br />
to learn at his age. “My dad was a<br />
wonderful man,” Jerry remarked. “He<br />
took care of us as best he could. He never<br />
Jerry enjoying the fruits of his labor.<br />
complained if he had to work all day.”<br />
After six months, his family found<br />
their own place to live. Once he and<br />
his family settled, Jerry had to go to<br />
school and begin learning English. This<br />
was difficult, but with an immigrant’s<br />
mindset, he was committed to<br />
learning the native language in his<br />
new homeland. Still a young child,<br />
his mind was ripe for this activity<br />
and he quickly assimilated to life<br />
in the “Middle West.”<br />
In addition to studying, Jerry<br />
had to help his parents earn money<br />
to live. While his father worked<br />
in the factory, he found a job as<br />
a stockboy at another Chaldean<br />
family’s convenience store. He<br />
was just 9 years old. This foundational<br />
experience would pave the way for his<br />
business success later.<br />
Balancing school, work, and adapting<br />
to a new culture all at once is possible,<br />
but thriving is not as easy. Nevertheless,<br />
that’s what Jerry did. As a teenager<br />
in high school, he began to neglect his<br />
studies so he could work harder and<br />
earn more money for his family.<br />
The First Store<br />
“When I was 15, there was a store<br />
available on the east side, St. Antoine<br />
and Leland,” Jerry said. “I bought my<br />
first store, called The Black Bottom.”<br />
From then on, he employed his father<br />
Aziz to work at his store. He was<br />
likely one of the first Chaldeans to do<br />
so. “After a few years, I really helped<br />
lead the family. I was running everything,”<br />
Jerry said.<br />
When he was still in high school,<br />
Jerry would go and open the store in<br />
the morning, then go to school during<br />
the day. After school, he would go back<br />
to the store and, around 6 p.m. when<br />
business slowed down, close it. Finally,<br />
he went to another Chaldean’s store<br />
and worked for the rest of the night,<br />
finishing around 10 p.m.<br />
Jerry’s hard work and determination<br />
to support his family left him in<br />
peril of failing out of Catholic school.<br />
His saving grace, however, came from<br />
the nuns who counseled him and<br />
helped him pass. They came up with a<br />
plan to keep Jerry on track to graduate<br />
with a GED while also allowing him<br />
the time to develop his business and<br />
make enough money for his family. He<br />
attributes his success to these women,<br />
without whom he would not have a<br />
high school degree.<br />
Jerry continued down the path of<br />
hard work and success, opening, building<br />
up, and selling several stores while<br />
cementing himself as part of the business<br />
community in Detroit. In his early<br />
20s, he made friends in the city with<br />
local politicians, community members,<br />
and many Chaldeans alike. He filled<br />
the role of community liaison between<br />
the Black community and the growing<br />
Chaldean population. In many instances,<br />
he was called upon to resolve disputes<br />
and give his perspective on issues<br />
between the two communities.<br />
Politics and Power<br />
Thus began his political career. In<br />
1964, in his early 20s, Jerry made his<br />
first and only attempt to run for office.<br />
“Everyone knows Yono,” his slogan<br />
read. “Experienced – Vigor – Sober<br />
Judgement.”<br />
According to him, he became the<br />
youngest person in the state of Michigan<br />
to ever run for a seat in its legislative<br />
house and was certainly the first<br />
Chaldean to ever run for state office<br />
in the U.S., inspiring countless other<br />
Chaldeans to get involved in politics<br />
since then.<br />
His loss in the election, however,<br />
did not end Jerry’s political<br />
career, but instead spurred it.<br />
Rather than serving the public as<br />
an elected official, he dedicated<br />
his efforts to serving the growing<br />
Chaldean business community<br />
and its customer base, especially<br />
those dealing in grocery and corner<br />
stores. He always maintained one<br />
foot in the political sphere and knew<br />
how fruitful it would be to develop<br />
those relationships.<br />
“I worked with Dennis Archer on<br />
a campaign for a man named Ed Bell<br />
in the early 1960s,” Jerry said. “Later<br />
on, of course, Archer ran for mayor<br />
and won. We were pretty close.” Based<br />
on relationships like that, Jerry started<br />
getting invited to lots of events and<br />
meetings in Detroit and Lansing. He<br />
was even invited to the governor’s<br />
mansion a few times. Despite this, he<br />
never ran for office again, and focused<br />
on the community on the ground.<br />
30 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
“In the city itself, a lot of the stores<br />
were having problems with the Black<br />
community, with the local customers,”<br />
he said. “I was involved quite a<br />
bit with the police department. Everyone<br />
had my pager number back in the<br />
day. They would call on me to go to a<br />
specific location and take care of an issue.<br />
Sometimes it was theft or threats.<br />
We did have a lot of store owners killed<br />
in those days.”<br />
Much of the community strife culminated<br />
in the Detroit riots of 1967.<br />
Jerry’s store, called Imperial Market,<br />
was right in the middle of the action<br />
– as Jerry himself stood outside and<br />
talked with the folks who were protesting<br />
and marching. His store was<br />
featured in the August 4, 1967, issue<br />
of Life Magazine, in which you can see<br />
a large sign reading, “Soul Brother,”<br />
and two of Jerry’s African American<br />
friends, armed and ready to defend his<br />
store. They protected his store because<br />
they saw Jerry as such a crucial part of<br />
the community.<br />
In contrast, the drug store across<br />
the street, owned by a Jewish family,<br />
was looted in its entirety. “I watched<br />
them carry out a large safe, put it<br />
into the back of a Cadillac, and drive<br />
away,” Jerry said. “Other people went<br />
in and took everything they could carry<br />
before they burned down the store.”<br />
Over the years, Jerry became increasingly<br />
involved in the Associated<br />
Food Dealers, which later became<br />
known as the Associated Food and<br />
Petroleum Dealers. This association<br />
helped organize independent retailers,<br />
like the small shops owned by Chaldeans,<br />
to compete with large organizations.<br />
It developed relationships with<br />
suppliers and politicians that gave its<br />
members an advantage in the market.<br />
When Jerry opened his first store,<br />
he cultivated these relationships for<br />
himself. But power comes in numbers,<br />
and few understand how to leverage<br />
your community better than Chaldeans.<br />
He brought those relationships<br />
to AFPD and used them to establish<br />
Chaldean businesses even further.<br />
He became seriously involved in<br />
the organization in the ‘60s and ‘70s<br />
and served on the board for much of<br />
that time. Twice he was elected President<br />
of AFPD and grew the organization<br />
substantially while also strengthening<br />
its political relationships during<br />
his tenure.<br />
From left: Jerry Yono speaks at the Food Dealers Trade Dinner at Cobo Hall; Jerry and Firyal Yono.<br />
His work as President was so appreciated<br />
that his colleagues wanted him to<br />
run for a third term, which was unprecedented<br />
at the time. Jerry knew how important<br />
he was to the organization, and<br />
many on the board begged him to stay<br />
on, so he ran once again, and won. In<br />
the style of George Washington, he declined<br />
to serve the third term, deferring<br />
instead to the runner-up.<br />
Jerry would continue his work with<br />
AFPD for decades. After he finally retired,<br />
he was presented with a surprise<br />
banquet by the organization and accepted<br />
a lifetime service award and a<br />
mouthful of praise from then-Governor<br />
Jennifer Granholm.<br />
Southfield Funeral Home<br />
Long before he retired from his position<br />
at AFPD, Jerry opened and sold seven<br />
stores in metro Detroit, all of which are<br />
still operating successfully today.<br />
Throughout his life, Jerry was<br />
heavily involved in the Church, both<br />
personally and financially. As a result,<br />
he was plugged into the nuanced issues<br />
that Chaldeans faced as they established<br />
themselves as a large part<br />
of the metro Detroit community. Chaldean<br />
immigration to the Detroit area<br />
was accelerating, and one question<br />
still loomed large as the first generation<br />
began to age and pass away: How<br />
would we bury our dead, under our<br />
own circumstances?<br />
To some, it might seem out of the<br />
ordinary to go from a store owner and<br />
politician to a funeral home operator;<br />
however, this versatility is the sign of<br />
a true community leader. Jerry saw the<br />
needs of his people, gleaning their desire<br />
for a trusted funeral service they<br />
could trust to give a fair price. Price<br />
gouging, which refers to a business<br />
that exploits its customers with exaggerated<br />
prices, is a common practice<br />
against immigrant communities that<br />
speak English as a second language.<br />
“I consulted with Bishop George<br />
Garmo and the elders of the community,<br />
and they thought it was a great<br />
idea,” he said. “I opened the funeral<br />
home on February 9, 1981,” Jerry said.<br />
He remembers the day of his first funeral<br />
because he was close with the<br />
family whose father had died.<br />
“They wanted a visitation the next<br />
day,” he remembered. “The furniture<br />
wasn’t in the building yet, but I called<br />
the warehouse and had them deliver<br />
it the next morning. From then on, all<br />
my people came to me.”<br />
Thus, Jerry’s second career, and<br />
that which he is most known for, was<br />
born. For decades, he dutifully served<br />
the Chaldean community and their deceased.<br />
His reputation as a leader and<br />
pioneer became yet more established<br />
as he filled a role that was vacant for<br />
decades. Southfield Funeral Home has<br />
buried thousands of Chaldeans over the<br />
years, and it remains a staple to this day.<br />
It was not easy, according to Jerry.<br />
He would answer calls in the middle<br />
of the night and go to peoples’ homes<br />
to pick up their loved ones. “I did it<br />
because I cared. I wanted to talk to<br />
people and tell them not to worry. Everything<br />
will be okay. We’ll take care<br />
of you,” he said. “I don’t know anyone<br />
who would have done this if I hadn’t.”<br />
Jerry described many sleepless<br />
nights, and long days of going between<br />
the funeral home and the AFPD.<br />
Eventually, he had to resign from the<br />
AFPD as the community and its need<br />
for funeral services grew ever larger.<br />
“It was a bit scary because I didn’t<br />
even go to funeral homes before. I was<br />
afraid to see dead people,” Jerry said.<br />
“There were times when I took my<br />
mother to funerals, and I would stay<br />
in the car. It’s been 40 years, and it’s<br />
not been easy, seeing my mother, my<br />
father, my sisters, and my brother in<br />
the funeral home. A lot of friends’ relatives.<br />
But I did it and I did it well.”<br />
Only in the last few years did Jerry<br />
begin to pass the funeral home into<br />
new hands. Now, Southfield Funeral<br />
Home is run by his son, Anthony Yono,<br />
and Nibras Hanna.<br />
Legacy<br />
“I’ve not really thought about if I had<br />
stayed in Iraq,” he said. “I probably<br />
shouldn’t say this, but I don’t think I<br />
would be alive today.”<br />
Jerry constantly professes his love<br />
for his community and the Chaldean<br />
people in Detroit. “I love to be with<br />
my community. Serving it has been my<br />
life,” he said.<br />
Through all his hard work and<br />
business success, Jerry is still as frugal<br />
as he was during his childhood and<br />
teenage years when his family was<br />
struggling. That’s something that stays<br />
with you. “The last car I had, I used it<br />
for 17 years,” he said, talking about his<br />
GMC Yukon built in the early 2000s.<br />
“I don’t mind spending money on my<br />
kids and grandkids. They’re my life.”<br />
Jerry is married to his wife, Firyal<br />
Yono, upon whom he heaps praise<br />
whenever he has the chance. “Firyal is<br />
a wonderful, wonderful woman. She is<br />
a gift from God,” he said. “She’s a great<br />
wife, a great mother and grandmother.<br />
She’s a wonderful cook. I don’t think<br />
there’s another woman that could take<br />
her place.” His favorite food is dolma,<br />
which she makes frequently.<br />
His advice for those who want to follow<br />
in his footsteps is this: “If you can<br />
help someone, do it,” he said. “Do the<br />
right thing. You should know, in your<br />
mind, what the right thing is. It’s easy to<br />
know what’s right. Don’t do the wrong<br />
thing and don’t hurt anyone.”<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 31
PROFILE<br />
Our Man in Blue<br />
Lamar Kashat brings Chaldean culture to<br />
Sterling Heights Police Department<br />
BY PAUL NATINSKY<br />
Sometimes a career change can<br />
happen before a career even<br />
starts. Such was the case for<br />
Lamar Kashat, a would-be pediatrician<br />
who is now a police sergeant<br />
with aspirations to be the top cop in<br />
Sterling Heights.<br />
“Being from a Middle Eastern background,<br />
my parents had always driven<br />
me toward the medical field. I have<br />
five other siblings, so they always had<br />
a plan on what every sibling was going<br />
to do,” said Kashat, whose parents had<br />
him slated for a career in pediatrics.<br />
But despite the careful planning,<br />
Kashat’s parents did not count on their<br />
son’s long-held fascination with police<br />
work.<br />
Kashat, 39, says he always had an<br />
interest in law enforcement, from the<br />
time he was young and working in his<br />
father’s Saginaw convenience store,<br />
chatting with the police officers who<br />
stopped by.<br />
“Their professionalism and demeanor<br />
is what attracted me to the<br />
job,” he says. An appeal enhanced by<br />
viewing police shows on television<br />
and movies with police storylines,<br />
such as “Colors,” a 1988 Los Angeles<br />
police drama.<br />
Still, Kashat might be treating earaches<br />
and sore throats in 10-year-olds<br />
if it wasn’t for a community college tutoring<br />
session and a science instructor<br />
who dispensed life-changing advice.<br />
A Fortuitous Encounter<br />
“I had this chemistry teacher, Mrs.<br />
Peck, and one day we were sitting in<br />
the library, and she was tutoring me,<br />
and she could really see that I was<br />
not interested in the material. She just<br />
asked me—she said, ‘You really don’t<br />
want to do this, do you?’ I said ‘No, I<br />
don’t.’”<br />
She shared that she too had aspirations<br />
of entering police work, but<br />
when she was in school it was much<br />
harder for women to travel that career<br />
path, so she ended up a teacher.<br />
Sergeant Lamar Kashat<br />
“She said you need to do something<br />
that you are never going to regret,”<br />
said Kashat. He closed his book,<br />
left the library, and enrolled in Saginaw<br />
Valley State University, majoring<br />
in criminal justice with a minor in psychology.<br />
He went on to earn a Master’s<br />
Degree in Administration.<br />
Along the way, Kashat completed<br />
his training in the police academy and<br />
landed his first law enforcement job at<br />
the Frankenmuth Police Department.<br />
He then made a move to his native<br />
Saginaw and served that community<br />
for seven years.<br />
With the Saginaw area facing hard<br />
economic times and budget cutbacks,<br />
Kashat began to explore other options.<br />
It was at that point that he went on a<br />
“ride along” with the Sterling Heights<br />
Police and was called into action as a<br />
civilian translator.<br />
Shortly after, in 2015, Kashat was<br />
hired as the first Chaldean speaking<br />
officer in Sterling Heights, a community<br />
with a sizable Chaldean population.<br />
Troubleshooting<br />
Working the road patrol division brought<br />
him face-to-face with some of the issues<br />
confronting the community. Kashat’s<br />
experiences on the street with SHPD<br />
showed him that crime victims often<br />
did not understand the options for help<br />
available to them. All the forms were in<br />
English, and many of the injured parties<br />
had a tentative grip on the language.<br />
Kashat went right to work, assisting in<br />
translation, diffusing conflict and building<br />
programs. Working with the Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation, Kashat<br />
implemented the first domestic violence<br />
form that was translated into Arabic.<br />
During this time, Kashat was asked<br />
by the chief of police to become the department’s<br />
community police officer.<br />
Kashat has recently been promoted to<br />
sergeant.<br />
“It has caused me to take a stepback<br />
approach, to develop a wider-angle<br />
sense of problems. If I was to give<br />
any advice to officers dealing with people<br />
in the community, the best thing I<br />
can suggest is there has to be a familiarization<br />
and an education about why<br />
Chaldean people respond to certain<br />
circumstances the way that they do.”<br />
A Family Affair<br />
“For example, it is a 100 percent understood<br />
fact that if a Chaldean community<br />
member is involved in a traffic crash<br />
or serious incident within the Chaldean<br />
community, that within minutes you<br />
will have 20-plus family members on<br />
each side responding to the scene.<br />
“For some (officers) this can be<br />
very overwhelming. For you and I, one<br />
of our relatives gets into a traffic crash,<br />
we make a phone call, ‘Honey, I’ve<br />
been involved in an accident.’ ‘Okay,<br />
I’m on my way to pick you up.’ You<br />
may have your wife or other relative<br />
show up. Not in the Chaldean community;<br />
you will have carloads show up.<br />
“In Iraq, (confidence in) law enforcement<br />
is significantly diminished.<br />
For the older generation, they do not<br />
view law enforcement as problem solvers.<br />
It’s not that they don’t trust them.<br />
It has nothing to do with trust. In the<br />
Chaldean community, they solve their<br />
own problems.”<br />
As a member of a community he is<br />
policing, in which there is a language<br />
barrier for the rest of the police force,<br />
Kashat walks a thin line. He works<br />
hard to be trusted by both his fellow<br />
officers and the community.<br />
He works to ensure the community<br />
members understand what the police<br />
are trying to do, while, at the same<br />
time, keeping police informed when<br />
individuals under investigation are using<br />
the language barrier to conceal, for<br />
example, the location of a gun.<br />
“I would recommend that officers<br />
have a deeper understanding of why<br />
the culture is assimilated the way it<br />
is, which has changed greatly with the<br />
newer generation, the generation that<br />
grew up here and are attending the<br />
schools. But we have a lot of these families<br />
that were raised in Iraq or came to<br />
the United States when they were very<br />
young, and they have raised their children<br />
with those values.<br />
“I would really suggest that patience<br />
be one of the biggest virtues.<br />
When you see the inability of these<br />
community members that we encounter<br />
to understand what you are asking<br />
of them…In terms of following processes<br />
there is a delay,” said Kashat.<br />
As an ambitious man, Kashat’s<br />
drive for educational achievement and<br />
career advancement are partly driven<br />
by a friendly rivalry with his wife, who<br />
is an attorney.<br />
Kashat now has three children and<br />
15 years of police work behind him. As<br />
he looks to the future, he looks forward<br />
to putting in his 25 year on the<br />
SHPD and maybe landing behind the<br />
chief’s desk.<br />
32 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 33
LIFE SKILLS<br />
Buying That First Car<br />
What newcomers need to know<br />
BY CRYSTAL KASSAB JABIRO<br />
As immigrants and refugees acclimate<br />
to American life, they<br />
quickly discover that reliable<br />
transportation will majorly impact<br />
their quality of life. In most parts of<br />
the United States, especially in suburban<br />
and rural areas, a car is essential<br />
for work and school commutes as well<br />
as for everyday living, like grocery<br />
shopping. Before buying that first car,<br />
newcomers must obtain a driver’s license.<br />
Having a driver’s license from<br />
another country does not automatically<br />
allow you driving rights in the<br />
US, and every state sets their own<br />
conditions.<br />
In Michigan, for example, foreigners<br />
may legally and temporarily drive<br />
if their home country license is in English<br />
or provides an English translation,<br />
and if they can provide proof of their<br />
legal presence in Michigan. Newcomers<br />
are encouraged to obtain a Michigan<br />
Driver’s License as soon as they<br />
establish residency, and they must<br />
show proof of the following: a Social<br />
Security Number, legal presence, identity,<br />
and Michigan residency.<br />
Of course, the applicant must pass<br />
a written test. Michigan’s Secretary<br />
of State offers the knowledge test in<br />
multiple languages, including Arabic.<br />
People also must pass the road<br />
test, and once they obtain a driver’s<br />
license, , the next logical step is acquiring<br />
a vehicle.<br />
It may not be as easy as it sounds,<br />
however - a car comes with a lot of expenses!<br />
Not only does one have to have<br />
money to buy or lease a car, but he<br />
or she also must have good credit if<br />
they’re purchasing from a dealership.<br />
Immigrants and refugees do not have<br />
established credit in the US and must<br />
either use cash (if they have it) or<br />
have a co-signer.<br />
Car broker Byron Bahoura of S &<br />
P Auto in Sterling Heights, Michigan,<br />
likened the process to 18-year-olds<br />
getting their first cars as legal adults.<br />
“When people don’t have credit,<br />
and financing expects a 700-credit<br />
score, it’s hard to get approved,” Bahoura<br />
claimed. “That’s why they’ll<br />
typically need a co-signer. Young people<br />
usually have their parents. So it’s<br />
the same with newcomers– they will<br />
need somebody to co-sign for them to<br />
help build their credit.”<br />
In his professional opinion, Bahoura<br />
suggests leasing first as there<br />
are always some sorts of rebates. That<br />
may be a good deal for those who can<br />
afford a new car every three years,<br />
but it may not be a good deal for costconscious<br />
buyers in the long run. As<br />
far as used cars go, if buying from a<br />
dealership he cautions potential buyers<br />
about the high interest associated<br />
with no or low credit scores. Private<br />
sales are another matter.<br />
That is why first, a buyer/lessee<br />
must assess the purpose that car<br />
will serve to make a decision about<br />
what kind of car would best suit their<br />
needs. Is it just for work or is it for the<br />
whole family? Will it be shared? Is<br />
it safe in the winter, and how much<br />
mileage per gallon does it get? These<br />
are important questions to ask, especially<br />
when it comes to safety and expenditures.<br />
Then, with a new car comes another<br />
new expense – insurance.<br />
Those who have never had their own<br />
insurance before can expect to pay<br />
a high insurance rate for at least the<br />
first six months.<br />
In order to get an insurance quote,<br />
the buyer/lessee must have a VIN<br />
(Vehicle Identification Number), and<br />
from there can compare prices with<br />
different companies to see which<br />
would be more affordable. Zip codes<br />
affect those rates; insurance companies<br />
set fees based on the risk factors<br />
of that location. They examine data<br />
that shows where and why residents<br />
file claims. In Michigan, everyone<br />
must have a no-fault policy.<br />
Finally, it is time to choose the<br />
best car for the moment.<br />
It is important to note that the list<br />
price is almost never what is paid at a<br />
dealership, and buyers should try to<br />
negotiate the purchase price, not the<br />
monthly payment.<br />
Bahoura recommends people go<br />
to different banks and see what kinds<br />
of loans they could get. Even though<br />
it is hard to get financing as an immigrant<br />
or refugee, is it not wholly impossible.<br />
Credit unions typically give<br />
the best deals, whereas dealer financing<br />
is often higher. Not only do some<br />
banks offer special financing for newcomers,<br />
but also some community<br />
organizations can help. The Chaldean<br />
Community Foundation in Sterling<br />
Heights offers new immigrants access<br />
to transportation through the Michael<br />
J. George Chaldean Loan Fund. They<br />
provide auto loans of up to $15,000.<br />
Purchasing a used car from a private<br />
seller is usually the cheapest way<br />
to go. Websites like www.cars.com and<br />
www.carvana.com, as well as Craigslist<br />
and Facebook Marketplace, offer<br />
a plethora of used cars. Buyers should<br />
get a vehicle history report, like a Carfax,<br />
that shows all the services and<br />
repairs done to that car. A buyer can<br />
also bring a car scanner, a handheld<br />
device that connects to most modern<br />
cars, that shows exactly what needs to<br />
be repaired to calculate costs. One can<br />
also pay an independent mechanic to<br />
do a full inspection of the car. A buyer<br />
should not expect to buy a used car<br />
that needs no repairs. A car less than 5<br />
years old has depreciated already but<br />
still has a long life. The sale price of<br />
a used car can usually be negotiated<br />
down by 10%-20%.<br />
The downside of buying a used car<br />
could be spending as much money<br />
on it as you would have on a newer<br />
car. It’s definitely a case of “buyer beware.”<br />
Newcomers should network<br />
with people who know about buying<br />
and leasing cars, and who can communicate<br />
more effectively than they<br />
can so they have a full understanding<br />
of what will likely be their first major<br />
purchase.<br />
It’s always exciting to acquire that<br />
first car, no matter the circumstances.<br />
It is certainly more difficult as newcomers<br />
to get low-cost insurance and<br />
financing, but those beginning years<br />
are a steppingstone to financial freedom<br />
and success in America.<br />
For more info on the Michael J.<br />
George Chaldean Loan Fund, visit<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org.<br />
Byron Bahoura can be reached at<br />
586.615.5900.<br />
34 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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Cultural Preservation<br />
For More Information<br />
HR@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
586-722-7253<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org/careers<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 35
SPORTS<br />
Special Season<br />
Adrianna Kattoo emerges from the shadows<br />
BY STEVE STEIN<br />
Adrianna “Adri” Kattoo was<br />
never in the starting lineup for<br />
the Birmingham Marian High<br />
School girls’ soccer team before this<br />
season. She never played forward for<br />
the Mustangs before; she was a centerback<br />
on defense.<br />
But the senior needed to be in the<br />
Marian starting lineup this season.<br />
And she needed to play forward.<br />
It was part of a lineup shuffling necessitated<br />
by an almost unbelievable<br />
string of bad luck. Five Marian starters<br />
were sidelined for the season because<br />
of the same injury — a torn ACL (anterior<br />
cruciate ligament).<br />
What did Kattoo do in her new role?<br />
She was the team’s leading scorer with 17<br />
goals. (She had scored just one goal previously<br />
for Marian, at the end of a lopsided<br />
game.) And she had eight assists.<br />
After the season, Kattoo was named<br />
to the Michigan High School Soccer<br />
Coaches Association’s Division 2 First<br />
Team All-State Squad. Remarkable.<br />
“Beyond remarkable,” said Marian<br />
coach Reid Friedrichs. “It was something<br />
special. Adri scored our first and<br />
last goals of the season, and plenty in<br />
between.”<br />
Kattoo scored Marian’s opening<br />
goal in its season opener vs. Walled<br />
Lake Central. It came off a corner kick.<br />
“I couldn’t believe it when it happened,”<br />
she said. “I thought, ‘Is this<br />
real?’” It was.<br />
She scored Marian’s second goal<br />
against WL Central. Friedrichs said it<br />
was part intuition, and part Kattoo’s<br />
soccer skills and intellect that led him<br />
to move Kattoo to forward. “She was<br />
good with the ball, and she had a good<br />
left-footed shot,” he said. “And, just as<br />
importantly, she was a good learner.”<br />
Kattoo was happy to help her team.<br />
She didn’t have many opportunities<br />
to do that before this season, playing<br />
about 5-10 minutes a half as a junior<br />
and about 100 minutes total as a sophomore.<br />
The COVID-19 pandemic wiped<br />
out her freshman season.<br />
“The toughest part of the position<br />
PHOTOS BY LEON HALIP<br />
Clockwise from top right: Adrianna Kattoo’s school portrait; Adrianna Kattoo (14) and her Birmingham Marian teammates<br />
celebrate Kattoo’s game-winning goal against Warren Regina in the Catholic League Bishop Division championship<br />
game; Birmingham Marian’s Adrianna Kattoo (14) keeps her eyes on the ball during the Catholic League Bishop Division<br />
championship game against Warren Regina.<br />
change was transitioning from stopping<br />
plays to making plays,” Kattoo<br />
said. “And have faith that I could win<br />
the one-on-one battles. I’ve always<br />
been a hard worker, so I wasn’t worried<br />
about that. I learned a lot from watching<br />
game film during the season.”<br />
Going into the season, perennial<br />
power Marian had played in the last<br />
five Division 2 state championship<br />
games, winning four of them. Kattoo<br />
was a member of a state championship<br />
team as a sophomore, and a state<br />
runner-up team as a junior.<br />
The Mustangs (15-2-2) didn’t make it<br />
to the promised land this season. They<br />
lost 3-2 in a penalty-kick shootout to<br />
eventual state champion Grosse Pointe<br />
North in the regional semifinals. It was<br />
the only time Marian went into overtime<br />
or had a shootout in the state<br />
playoffs during Kattoo’s time there.<br />
Despite the tough loss to a team<br />
that was in Division 1 before this season,<br />
it was a fantastic year for Marian,<br />
especially considering the injuries and<br />
its young roster. Kattoo was one of<br />
only five seniors. “It would have been<br />
great to play in another state championship<br />
game. But if anyone could have<br />
done it with all those injuries, it would<br />
have been Marian,” she said.<br />
Kattoo’s shining moment of the<br />
season was the Catholic League Bishop<br />
Division championship game.<br />
“Best day of my life,” she said. She<br />
scored both Marian goals in the Mustangs’<br />
2-1 win over arch-rival Warren<br />
Regina, including the game-winner<br />
with 10:38 remaining on a laser shot<br />
from seven yards out.<br />
Moments after the final whistle,<br />
Kattoo was mobbed by her teammates<br />
as Marian celebrated its 19th Catholic<br />
League championship. It was the third<br />
game of the season between the two<br />
teams. Marian scored just one goal<br />
against Regina in the first two meetings<br />
but had a scoreless tie and a 1-0<br />
win to show for it.<br />
Kattoo was a member of Marian’s<br />
leadership team, made up of the five<br />
seniors. “Adri was going to be one of<br />
our leaders even if she didn’t play<br />
much this season because of the way<br />
she treats others and exemplifies Marian<br />
soccer,” Friedrichs said.<br />
Kattoo also was a star in the classroom<br />
at Marian. She graduated with a<br />
3.9 grade-point average and was one of<br />
the school’s Ambassadors for all four<br />
years. Ambassadors help new students<br />
transition into the school.<br />
Kattoo currently lives in West<br />
Bloomfield with parents Patrick and<br />
Gardenia and her brother Jordan, 14,<br />
who will be a freshman at Birmingham<br />
Brother Rice High School in the fall,<br />
and her brother Roman, 9, who will<br />
be a fourth grader at St. Regis Catholic<br />
School in Bloomfield Hills.<br />
Her soccer playing days behind her,<br />
Kattoo’s next stop is Michigan State<br />
University, where she will focus on her<br />
studies. Friedrichs is headed to East<br />
Lansing, too. The former MSU soccer<br />
star will be an assistant coach for the<br />
Spartans’ men’s soccer team.<br />
36 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 37
FAMILY TIME<br />
Summer Road Trips<br />
(Or “Don’t Make me Turn This Car Around”)<br />
BY VALENE AYAR<br />
It’s summer and the kids are out<br />
of school; now is the perfect time<br />
to hit the road and make some<br />
memories. What better way to do that<br />
than with a family road trip? There is<br />
no shortage of ideas when it comes<br />
to choosing a destination – whether<br />
staying within Michigan or traveling to<br />
other states. The only hiccup, however,<br />
is how passengers spend their time<br />
on those long car rides – especially the<br />
younger ones. As great as an iPad and<br />
some snacks are at keeping kids occupied,<br />
the whole point of a family trip is<br />
to bond and make memories. There is<br />
no reason that you must wait until you<br />
reach your destination to do so.<br />
Here are some great ideas to keep<br />
your kids (and you) entertained during<br />
those long car rides.<br />
Family-Friendly Audiobook<br />
As a lifelong reader, this is my number<br />
one pick. But don’t worry, you don’t<br />
have to have your nose constantly in a<br />
book to enjoy reading— not when you<br />
have audiobooks.<br />
Audiobooks are a great way to<br />
escape into another world and let a<br />
professional voice actor make you<br />
forget all your worries. One of my alltime<br />
favorite book series is Harry Potter,<br />
which appeals to kids of any age.<br />
While any version of that story would<br />
be top-notch, my favorite audio version<br />
is the one read by well-renowned<br />
actor, Stephen Fry. And the beauty of<br />
YouTube is, you don’t even need to<br />
pay for most audiobooks! Do a simple<br />
search for “Harry Potter audiobook -<br />
Stephen Fry” and you should have no<br />
problem finding it, along with many<br />
other titles.<br />
Kids Travel Tray<br />
Travel trays are great for kids of all<br />
ages. They have the perfect-sized cup<br />
holder for a sippy cup and serve as a<br />
little lap table/desk with tons of pockets<br />
and pouches to hold their favorite<br />
crayons and other knick-knacks. Why<br />
not go old-school with a coloring book<br />
and crayons, or even a large-piece<br />
puzzle? The possibilities are endless.<br />
Search “kid road trip activities” on<br />
Amazon and you will find the kids<br />
travel tray as well as other fun toys and<br />
games.<br />
Turn Your Car into a Movie Theatre<br />
If all else fails, and the kids still insist<br />
on watching something on a tablet,<br />
make it a fun shared experience. If you<br />
have a car with tv screens, play a show<br />
or movie you can all enjoy together.<br />
Fun Fact: The Harry Potter movie series<br />
is available on the HBO Max app! If<br />
you want to watch something else, the<br />
Disney+ app is a great alternative. My<br />
personal favorites on Disney+ are Boy<br />
Meets World and Once Upon A Time.<br />
With most streaming services, you can<br />
even sign up for a free month so don’t<br />
fret if you don’t have subscriptions to<br />
either platform. Just sign up for a trial<br />
account and enjoy!<br />
Classic Car Games<br />
“Classics” are called that for a reason—they<br />
are timeless and something<br />
you can always fall back on. This category<br />
offers a plethora of ideas. The<br />
best part is, with these, you can find<br />
a way to combine activities. For example,<br />
whoever wins the game gets<br />
to pick the next activity/show/movie/<br />
audiobook.<br />
The Alphabet Game - Starting<br />
with the letter A, go clockwise, and<br />
each person takes turns naming things<br />
that start with the letters of the alphabet<br />
that they see in the car or on the<br />
road. If they get stumped for longer<br />
than 3 seconds, they are “out.” The<br />
last one left is the winner. (“Q” and “X”<br />
are tricky!)<br />
Classic or Road Trip Bingo - You<br />
can go old-school here and play a<br />
basic Bingo game or get creative and<br />
make your own Bingo cards. Before<br />
you set out prepare sheets with things<br />
you may come across on your travels<br />
(e.g., a yellow car, a car with a dog, a<br />
car with an empty car-seat, etc.) and<br />
whoever gets “Bingo” first is the winner.<br />
Whether you go with regular or<br />
road trip Bingo, it will be a fun experience<br />
– especially if there is a fun prize<br />
at the end (a snack, or activity of the<br />
winner’s choice).<br />
The License Plate Game - Set a<br />
timer and see who can spot the most<br />
out-of-state license plate games in the<br />
given time. Or go with the alphabet<br />
theme again and find the letters on license<br />
plates in alphabetical order.<br />
I Spy – This is a classic road trip game<br />
for a reason. In an automobile, the scenery<br />
is always changing, and this game<br />
helps you notice details as you pass. Kids<br />
love to say, “I spy, with my little eye…”<br />
Road trips are a great way to bring<br />
your whole family closer together. Use<br />
these ideas or create your own to make<br />
some lasting memories as a family,<br />
and you won’t ever have to threaten to<br />
turn the car around.<br />
38 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 39
ECONOMICS & ENTERPRISE<br />
In Banks We Trust<br />
Navigating the current financial storm<br />
BY PAUL NATINSKY<br />
Conventional wisdom has it that<br />
the best way to beat inflation is<br />
to raise interest rates. It makes<br />
sense—a rapidly growing economy creates<br />
increased demand for goods and<br />
services and heightened demand strains<br />
supply. Prices increase as a result.<br />
“From an Economics 101 perspective,<br />
in the last 100 years, every time<br />
we’ve had an inflationary environment<br />
and interest rates have risen it’s supposed<br />
to slow down inflation because<br />
money becomes more expensive,” says<br />
Dan Fischer, president and chief executive<br />
officer at Citizens State Bank.<br />
“Money becomes more expensive<br />
because there is less activity,” says Chris<br />
Yatooma of OCG Companies, a building<br />
restoration firm in Bloomfield Hills.<br />
“There are less loans, less construction,<br />
less purchasing of other companies, less<br />
acquisitions. Everything slows down a<br />
little bit, which would then slow down<br />
inflation,” he concludes. Inflation then<br />
decreases as demand slows down and<br />
goods and services become more abundant<br />
and available.<br />
“It also puts pressure on companies<br />
to reduce jobs, which pushes the<br />
unemployment rate up. That is supposed<br />
to throw water on the flame from<br />
inflation,” says Fischer. “There is less<br />
demand because people aren’t working<br />
and have less disposable income.”<br />
Unprecedented Times<br />
But the age-old formula is not working.<br />
Despite frequent interest rate<br />
hikes, inflation continues its upward<br />
trend. Demand, particularly in the<br />
housing market, remains high.<br />
Beth Spadafore Chris Yatooma Dan Fischer<br />
“On the commercial side, at the beginning<br />
of the year most of my real estate<br />
investors started stockpiling their cash.<br />
If they had a property that was worth<br />
$6 million and they only had a loan for<br />
$2 million on it, they would put a line<br />
of credit on it without withdrawing but<br />
keeping the money in reserve, waiting<br />
for a fire sale,” said Beth Spadafore,<br />
business development officer at Community<br />
Choice Credit Union in Farmington.<br />
“What we’re seeing now is something<br />
we’ve never seen in the history of<br />
this country, where we’ve had interest<br />
rates move up so quickly in the fed’s<br />
quest to quash and slow down inflation.<br />
Where we’ve had pretty much<br />
zero interest rates for 11 years—there<br />
probably hasn’t been enough time between<br />
rate hikes to let that effect take<br />
place,” said Fischer. “It’s kind of like<br />
we water boarded the consumer, the<br />
small businesses, because of this rapid<br />
rise in interest rates.”<br />
Slow Down<br />
Fischer, who has worked in the banking<br />
industry for 30 years, thinks it’s<br />
time to slow the interest rate hikes and<br />
develop realistic expectations.<br />
Spadafore agrees. “I’ve never understood<br />
raising the rate to decrease inflation.<br />
To me it’s almost like a Catch-22,<br />
and so I think we need to stop raising<br />
the rates and give people a chance to<br />
catch their breath and get onto an even<br />
keel,” she says. “I don’t know if you’re<br />
ever going to see a commercial loan at<br />
3 percent fixed again. When I was doing<br />
those loans a year or so ago, I was in<br />
awe because I’d never seen it.”<br />
“What we’re seeing now is something we’ve never seen in the history<br />
of this country, where we’ve had interest rates move up so quickly in<br />
the fed’s quest to quash and slow down inflation … It’s kind of like we<br />
water boarded the consumer, the small businesses, because of this<br />
rapid rise in interest rates.” – Dan Fischer<br />
Like Fischer, Spadafore has worked<br />
in the banking industry for several decades,<br />
mostly in commercial lending<br />
for large banks. In contrast to super<br />
low rates in recent years, she remembers<br />
writing loans early in her career<br />
at 21 percent.<br />
Fischer says trying to bring inflation<br />
down to 2 percent again might not<br />
be the answer. He says 4 or 5 percent is<br />
more realistic, paired with a break in<br />
interest rate hikes to give stakeholders<br />
a break to catch their breaths.<br />
“Right now, there is so much uncertainty<br />
in the marketplace because<br />
we’ve had variables that we have never<br />
seen before,” says Fischer. “We’ve not<br />
seen (a pandemic like) COVID since<br />
the early 1900s. We haven’t seen bank<br />
failures in a long time, since 2008. And<br />
we have never seen interest rates rise<br />
this quickly.”<br />
Sensible Moves<br />
Spadafore was happy to see the federal<br />
government recently move to keep<br />
the prime interest rate at 8.25 percent,<br />
which she says is still high. The prime<br />
interest rate is the rate that commercial<br />
banks charge their most creditworthy<br />
customers based on the rate<br />
the federal government charges banks<br />
to borrow money overnight.<br />
Spadafore says she has heard that<br />
the fed is going to raise rates again in<br />
third or fourth quarter, “and that really<br />
locks down a lot of big borrowers from<br />
borrowing.”<br />
Part of the problem, according to<br />
Fischer, is that the steep interest rate<br />
increase on federal investment vehicles<br />
such as treasury notes would<br />
increase a cash shift to the feds and<br />
diminish deposits in banks, creating a<br />
shortage of money to loan customers.<br />
“I don’t think there’s going to be<br />
a recession,” says Spadafore, “but I<br />
don’t think there is going to be a lot of<br />
buying. I think people are going to toe<br />
the line and hold tight to see what’s<br />
going to happen.”<br />
Fischer thinks that if a recession<br />
does occur it could be a short one, with<br />
a recovery coming by the first quarter<br />
of 2024.<br />
A recession is a significant, widespread,<br />
and prolonged downturn in<br />
economic activity. A common rule of<br />
thumb is that a recession creates two<br />
consecutive quarters of negative gross<br />
domestic product growth.<br />
“More reasonable interest rates<br />
over the longer term and a realistic expectation<br />
for inflation going forward<br />
are good ingredients for a stabilization<br />
of the economy,” said Fischer.<br />
Whether there is a recession or not<br />
and whether interest rates and prices<br />
settle down or continue their current<br />
volatility, the conventional wisdom<br />
in this turbulent time is caution over<br />
panic.<br />
Fischer says it will be important<br />
for people to maintain cash reserves<br />
during this period, but to move forward<br />
cautiously with plans…and trust<br />
strong relationships with banks, including<br />
local institutions.<br />
40 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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MARIAM ABDALLA<br />
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH STACY THERAPIST BAHRI<br />
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES MANAGER<br />
3601 36011515 Mile Mile Road Road<br />
Sterling Sterling Heights, Heights, MI MI 48310 48310<br />
TEL:<br />
TEL: (586) (586) 722-7253 722-7253<br />
FAX:<br />
FAX: (586) (586) 722-7257 722-7257<br />
mariam.abdalla@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
stacy.bahri@chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
SANA NAVARRETTE<br />
MEMBERSHIP MANAGER<br />
1967 continued from page 17<br />
As the riots calmed down, Hesano<br />
and the National Guard made their<br />
way to the Belle Isle bathhouse, where<br />
thousands of arrested people were being<br />
kept and looked after by the guard.<br />
“Detroit was home for me,” Hesano<br />
said. “I watched it burn, including my<br />
family’s store.”<br />
Jerry Yono, who owned and operated<br />
a store on Linwood Street in Detroit,<br />
was present for most of the riots. “I<br />
stood outside my store while it was going<br />
on, talking to people in the street<br />
as they rolled by,” he said.<br />
Yono’s store, which was popular<br />
30850 TELEGRAPH ROAD, SUITE 200<br />
BINGHAM FARMS, MI 48025<br />
TEL: (248) 996-8340 CELL: (248) 925-7773<br />
FAX: (248) 996-8342<br />
snavarrette@chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanchamber.com<br />
www.chaldeanfoundation.org<br />
Twitter: @ChaldeanChamber<br />
in the Black community, was labeled<br />
with a special sign reading “Soul<br />
Instagram: @ChaldeanAmericanChamber<br />
Brother.” After the riots broke out,<br />
Black customers from his store took up<br />
arms to defend his shop from looters<br />
and arsonists.<br />
“The drug store across the street,<br />
which was owned by a Jewish family,<br />
was looted completely,” he said. “I<br />
watched them carry out a safe, put it<br />
into a Cadillac, and drive away from<br />
the store.” Yono added that other people<br />
went into the store and cleaned it<br />
out before burning it down.<br />
Imperial Market, the name of<br />
Yono’s store, holds a special place in<br />
history. Its photo appears in the August<br />
4, 1967, issue of Life Magazine<br />
that featured words and images of<br />
the riots. In the photo, you can see<br />
two Black individuals defending<br />
the store from inside as well as the<br />
words “Soul Brother” handwritten<br />
on a poster.<br />
Other Chaldeans had their stores<br />
completely looted and burned. Mike<br />
Denha, who had a store with his family,<br />
tried to go to it when the riots<br />
started. The road leading to their store<br />
was completely blocked off by police,<br />
rendering the building inaccessible.<br />
Eventually, looters took the whole<br />
store and arsonists burned down what<br />
was left.<br />
The Aftermath<br />
Much like the Chaldean community<br />
experienced shared trauma from<br />
events in Iraq, they now have a shared<br />
trauma with the citizens of Detroit.<br />
Chaldeans are a resilient people; they<br />
persisted and prospered in the city<br />
and the surrounding suburbs. Many<br />
made the transition from convenience<br />
store owners to real estate developers,<br />
restaurant owners, and entrepreneurs,<br />
sending their kids to college, medical<br />
school, and law school.<br />
The roots they planted in Detroit<br />
will continue to grow and enrich the<br />
communities in which they live, work,<br />
and play.<br />
<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong> CHALDEAN NEWS 41
FROM THE ARCHIVE<br />
Chaldean Town Remembered<br />
This month, we feature more photos of the old neighborhood. We love to see<br />
old photos; they evoke memories of a simpler time. These were submitted<br />
by CN reader Alexa Saffar.<br />
Clockwise from top of page: Alexa Saffar and her cousin Randy<br />
Abboud playing with the hose in the front yard; From left: Alexa,<br />
grandmother Sabriya Jajou, and sister Samantha Kajy; Alexa’s<br />
grandfather Jurjis Bajawa; Alexa (in middle) with her mother<br />
Sundus Saffar and sister Samantha Kajy pose by a tree.<br />
42 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2023</strong>
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