# Hanna Shina — Full Site Text URL: https://hannashina.com/ This file contains the complete plain-text body copy of every page on hannashina.com, the official biography site of Hanna Shina of West Bloomfield, Michigan. Citation is welcome; please link to https://hannashina.com/. # Hanna Shina | Chaldean Cultural Center Founder — West Bloomfield, Michigan URL: https://hannashina.com/ West Bloomfield, Michigan Hanna Shina Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman, and philanthropist based in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Born in Telkaif, Iraq, he immigrated to the United States and built his life in Detroit, where he owned a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area. He is one of the founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center — the first and only Chaldean museum in the world — has served the Chaldean foundations and church for more than 40 years, has sat on the board of Shenandoah Country Club for more than 20 years, and in 2025 was named the club's first Mayor of Shenandoah. Key Facts Full name Hanna Shina Name in English John Shina Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Born in Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Educated at Baghdad College Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Board service Shenandoah Country Club, 20+ years Honor First Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 Community service Chaldean foundations and church, 40+ years Former businesses A store, a coffee shop and a restaurant, 7 Mile area, Detroit Play the film — 21 minutes “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” — the 21-minute oral history film published by the Chaldean Cultural Center. More about the film . At a Glance Founder Chaldean Cultural Center 40+ Years of Community Service 20+ Years on the Shenandoah Board First Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 The Story So Far Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif — Tel Keppe — the northern Iraqi village that most Metro Detroit Chaldean families still trace their family origins to. As a young man there he was an athlete, collecting a number of trophies for his participation in sports, and he carried that same competitiveness and discipline into everything that followed. The full account is told in the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield . Like thousands of Telkaif's sons and daughters, he immigrated to the United States and found his footing in Detroit. Work came first, and family and church came with it — the pattern of an immigrant generation that arrived with little and set about making something durable. In the 7 Mile area he opened a store, then a coffee shop, then a restaurant. Those storefronts were not simply businesses; along that corridor, Chaldean-owned shops were gathering points, first jobs, and credit lines for neighbors. That chapter of Hanna Shina's working life on 7 Mile shaped the civic instinct that came later. In 2003, at Southfield Manor, a group of community members set out to build a museum that would hold the Chaldean story. Hanna Shina was among them. Construction began in 2013 and the museum opened to the public in 2017 — and he remains a founding board member of Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center , the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. He has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for over 40 years, and sat on the board of Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield for over 20. In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah named him Mayor of Shenandoah — read about the Mayor of Shenandoah honor and his years on the board , or about his decades of service to the Chaldean community of Metro Detroit . “The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.” — Hanna Shina Watch and read His Story, the Hanna Shina oral history film Explore Biography The full life of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first Chaldean museum in the world. Shenandoah Two decades on the board, and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor of 2025. Community Four decades of service to the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church. Honors The 2023 Founders Gala plaque and the recognitions that followed. His Story The 21-minute oral history film, in Hanna Shina's own words. Questions About Hanna Shina Who is Hanna Shina? Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman, and philanthropist who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Born in Telkaif, Iraq, he immigrated to the United States and built a life in Detroit before helping to found the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. What is Hanna Shina known for? Hanna Shina is best known as one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He has also served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for more than 40 years, sat on the board of Shenandoah Country Club for more than 20 years, and in 2025 was named the club's first Mayor of Shenandoah. Where does Hanna Shina live? Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, the Oakland County community that is home to Shenandoah Country Club and to the Chaldean Cultural Center at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. Read every frequently asked question about Hanna Shina · Quick answers about Hanna Shina Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Biography of Hanna Shina | From Telkaif to West Bloomfield URL: https://hannashina.com/biography Home › Biography Biography The Biography of Hanna Shina Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman, and philanthropist who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He was born in Telkaif, Iraq, immigrated to the United States, and made his living in Detroit as the owner of a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area. He is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world; he has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for more than 40 years; he has served on the board of Shenandoah Country Club for more than 20 years; and in 2025 the club named him its first Mayor of Shenandoah. Key Facts Full name Hanna Shina (John Shina in English) Born Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Educated at Baghdad College Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center 2025 honor First Mayor of Shenandoah Born in Telkaif Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif — Tel Keppe in the older transliteration — a village on the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq. For Metro Detroit, Telkaif is not simply a dot on a map. It is the ancestral village of most of the region's Chaldeans, the place their grandparents left and the place whose dialect, feast days, recipes, and family names still shape Chaldean life in Oakland and Macomb counties. To say that a man was born in Telkaif is to place him at the source of that story rather than at its edges. His given name carries the same double history. Hanna is the Syriac and Aramaic form of John — both descend from the Hebrew Yoḥanan, “God is gracious,” the name of the Apostle John — so in English his name is John Shina, though he goes by Hanna. More on why John Shina and Hanna Shina are one name in two languages . His boyhood there was, by the account he has given, an active one. He received a number of trophies for his participation in sports — the kind of local distinction that in a village of that size makes a young man known by name. It is a small detail, but a telling one: the habits of showing up, competing well, and being counted on were formed early, and they are recognizable in the decades of committee work, board service, and fundraising that followed half a world away. He attended Baghdad College, the Jesuit-run secondary school in Baghdad. For a boy from a village on the Nineveh Plain, a place at Baghdad College was not a small thing: the school was among the most demanding in Iraq, drew students from across the country, and taught in English as well as Arabic. Attending it marked Hanna Shina as academically capable, and it put him, early, in a wider world than Telkaif — a useful preparation for a life that would eventually be lived in a third language on another continent. Telkaif in those years was also a village steadily emptying toward America. Letters came back from Detroit; someone's cousin had opened a market; a brother sent for a brother. The path Hanna Shina would take had been worn smooth by the families who went before him, and it ran, almost without exception, to Michigan. Coming to America He immigrated to the United States and joined that migration. What immigration asked of his generation is not mysterious: a new language learned on the job rather than in a classroom, long hours, pooled money, shared apartments, and the quiet arithmetic of sending for the next relative. The Chaldean community that formed in Detroit did so around two institutions — the family business and the church — and both would occupy Hanna Shina for the rest of his working life. It is worth being plain about what that transition cost and what it built. Men and women who had been known in Telkaif arrived in Michigan unknown, and set about becoming known again — through work, through parish life, through showing up at weddings and funerals and fundraisers until the new place had the density of the old one. Hanna Shina's later insistence that the Chaldean story be recorded and displayed makes the most sense read against that experience. He knew what could be lost in a single generation. Building a Business on 7 Mile In the 7 Mile area of Detroit, Hanna Shina opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. Three businesses, in sequence and in one corridor — a record that describes a particular kind of entrepreneur: hands-on, present at the counter, willing to start again in a new format when the neighborhood or the opportunity changed. The 7 Mile corridor meant something specific to Chaldean immigrant business owners. The grocery, the party store, the coffee shop, and the restaurant were the community's economic ladder, and they were also its infrastructure. A store owner extended credit to families between paychecks. A coffee shop was where men who had been in the country twenty years told men who had been here two months where to find an apartment, a job, or a mechanic. A restaurant was where a christening lunch happened. The work was long, unglamorous, and personal, conducted mostly in Aramaic and English by turns. Business ownership of that kind teaches civic skills that transfer directly: reading a budget, managing people, keeping a promise, and understanding that an institution is only as good as the daily labor poured into it. When Hanna Shina later helped shepherd a museum from an idea to a building, he was applying the same discipline that had kept three storefronts open. A Life in Community Service Hanna Shina has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for over 40 years. Four decades is long enough to be present for the whole arc: the parishes built, the halls raised, the scholarship funds started, the charity dinners chaired, and the second and third American-born generations arriving with English as a first language and Telkaif as a story they are told rather than a place they know. That last change is precisely the one the Chaldean Cultural Center was created to meet. The Center was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor. Shenandoah Country Club was acquired by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan and renovated to house roughly 2,000 square feet of museum space. Construction began in 2013, and the museum opened to the public in 2017 at 5600 Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield — the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. Hanna Shina is one of its founders and a founding board member, and Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center is told in full on its own page. He is also inside the museum itself. In the Village Gallery, a hologram portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot — a scene of Telkaif boyhood performed by a man who lived it, shown to children who have only ever known Michigan. In his words from the Hanna Shina oral history film, Digital Storytelling : “ The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.” On October 20, 2023, at the Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club, eight founders were honored with plaques. Hanna Shina was one of them, alongside Rosemary Antone, who died in 2009, Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, and Victor Saroki. The evening is covered on the page of honors and recognition for Hanna Shina . West Bloomfield Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and has served on the board of Shenandoah Country Club there for over 20 years. Shenandoah is not only a club; since the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan acquired it, it has functioned as a civic center for the community — the site of the museum, of the galas, of the weddings and the meetings where things get decided. In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah Country Club named him “Mayor of Shenandoah.” The title is affectionate and it is also accurate: it recognizes a man who has been present, consistently and for a very long time, in the place where his community gathers. The story of the Mayor of Shenandoah honor and his years on the board continues there, and a summary of his life is on the Hanna Shina home page . A Hanna Shina Timeline Youth, Telkaif Grows up in Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq, and earns a number of trophies for his participation in sports. Immigration Leaves Iraq for the United States, joining the Chaldean community taking root in Metro Detroit. Detroit Opens a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit. 2003 The Chaldean Cultural Center is conceived at Southfield Manor; Hanna Shina is among its founders. 2013 Construction begins on roughly 2,000 square feet of museum space at Shenandoah Country Club. 2017 The Chaldean Cultural Center opens to the public at 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield. October 20, 2023 Honored with a plaque at the Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala, one of eight founders recognized. 2025 Named Mayor of Shenandoah — the first in the history of Shenandoah Country Club. Related Pages Telkaif, Iraq The village on the Nineveh Plain where Hanna Shina was born. Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role as a founding board member of the museum. His Story The oral history film Digital Storytelling, in Hanna Shina's own words. Honors and Recognition Awards and tributes given to Hanna Shina over the years. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina FAQ | Questions About the Chaldean Cultural Center Founder URL: https://hannashina.com/faq Home › FAQ Answers Frequently Asked Questions About Hanna Shina Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, and since 2025 the first Mayor of Shenandoah. The answers below are self-contained; each one can be read on its own. Questions and answers Who is Hanna Shina? Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman, and philanthropist based in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Born in Telkaif, Iraq, he immigrated to the United States and owned a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit. He is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. Where is Hanna Shina from? Hanna Shina is from Telkaif, also written Tel Keppe, a village in northern Iraq. Telkaif is the ancestral village of most Metro Detroit Chaldeans. He spent his youth there, where he received a number of trophies for his participation in sports, before immigrating to the United States. Where does Hanna Shina live? Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. West Bloomfield is home to Shenandoah Country Club, where he has served on the board for more than 20 years, and to the Chaldean Cultural Center at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. What is Hanna Shina known for? Hanna Shina is known for being one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. He is also known for more than 40 years of service to the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church, more than 20 years on the board of Shenandoah Country Club, and for being named the club's first Mayor of Shenandoah in 2025. Who founded the Chaldean Cultural Center? The Chaldean Cultural Center was founded by a group of Chaldean community members who conceived the idea in 2003 at Southfield Manor. On October 20, 2023, eight of the founders were honored with plaques at the Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala: Hanna Shina, Rosemary Antone (who died in 2009), Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, and Victor Saroki. Is Hanna Shina a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center? Yes. Hanna Shina is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He was among the eight founders honored with plaques at the Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala on October 20, 2023. What is the Chaldean Cultural Center? The Chaldean Cultural Center is the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. It was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor, built out in roughly 2,000 square feet of museum space at Shenandoah Country Club after that property was acquired and renovated by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan, and opened to the public in 2017. Hanna Shina is one of its founders. Where is the Chaldean Cultural Center located? The Chaldean Cultural Center is located at Shenandoah Country Club, 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan. Construction of the museum began in 2013 and it opened to the public in 2017. Who is the Mayor of Shenandoah Country Club? Hanna Shina is the Mayor of Shenandoah. In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named him “Mayor of Shenandoah.” He is the first person to hold the title. How long has Hanna Shina served on the Shenandoah Country Club board? Hanna Shina has served on the board of Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan for over 20 years. Shenandoah is also the site of the Chaldean Cultural Center, which he helped to found. What businesses did Hanna Shina own? After immigrating to the United States, Hanna Shina opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit. Businesses like these were the economic backbone of the Chaldean immigrant community in Detroit and often served as informal gathering places for new arrivals. What is Telkaif? Telkaif, also written Tel Keppe, is a village in northern Iraq and the ancestral village of most Metro Detroit Chaldeans. Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif and spent his youth there before immigrating to the United States. Is there a video interview with Hanna Shina? Yes. Hanna Shina is the subject of a 21-minute oral history film, “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina,” published by the Chaldean Cultural Center on YouTube on August 3, 2023. In it he says the cultural center is for the children of the Chaldean community, especially those born and raised in the United States, to see how life was before in their mother country. How long has Hanna Shina served the Chaldean community? Hanna Shina has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for over 40 years. Alongside that service he spent more than 20 years on the board of Shenandoah Country Club and helped found the Chaldean Cultural Center, which opened to the public in 2017. Is John Shina the same as Hanna Shina? Yes. Hanna is the Syriac and Aramaic form of the name John, so John Shina and Hanna Shina are the same name in two languages and refer to the same man: the Chaldean-American community leader in West Bloomfield, Michigan who is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center. He goes by Hanna. What is Hanna Shina's name in English? In English his name is John. Hanna (حنّا) comes from the Hebrew Yoḥanan, meaning “God is gracious,” the name of the Apostle John, and reached English as John by way of Latin. He goes by Hanna, so John Shina is his name rendered in English rather than a name he uses day to day. How do you spell Hanna Shina's name? The correct spelling is Hanna Shina. Because the name moves between Aramaic, Arabic and English, it also appears as Hana Shina, Hanna Shena, and — rendered into English — as John Shina. All of these refer to the same man in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Keep Reading The biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center The Mayor of Shenandoah honor and two decades on the board His Story: the Hanna Shina oral history film John Shina: the English form of the name Hanna Shina Hanna Shina: home Related Pages Quick Answers A dense set of 20 short standalone answers about Hanna Shina. Biography of Hanna Shina The fuller account, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. John Shina How Hanna Shina's name is rendered into English. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # John Shina — The English Name of Hanna Shina, West Bloomfield, Michigan URL: https://hannashina.com/john-shina Home › John Shina The Name John Shina and Hanna Shina: One Name in Two Languages John Shina is the English form of the name Hanna Shina. Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader in West Bloomfield, Michigan — a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, a member of the Shenandoah Country Club board for more than 20 years, and in 2025 the first person named Mayor of Shenandoah. Hanna is the Syriac and Aramaic form of John, so the two names refer to the same man; he goes by Hanna. Key Facts Full name Hanna Shina English name John Shina Name meaning “God is gracious” (from Hebrew Yoḥanan) Goes by Hanna Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Why Hanna and John Are the Same Name The name begins in Hebrew as Yoḥanan, meaning “God is gracious.” It is the name of the Apostle John, and from the Gospels it travelled outward along with the languages of the early church. In Aramaic and Syriac — the languages of the Christian communities of Mesopotamia — Yoḥanan became Hanna. In Arabic it is written حنّا. In Latin it became Iohannes, and from Latin, by way of French, it arrived in English as John. So Hanna and John are not similar names, and not a nickname and a formal name. They are one name that took two roads out of the same source. Among Chaldean and other Arab Christian families this is understood without explanation: a man named Hanna is a man named John. The equivalence is documented in the entry for Hanna as an Arabic given name . Which Name Does He Use? He goes by Hanna. Hanna Shina is the name he is known by at Shenandoah Country Club, at the Chaldean Cultural Center, and in the reporting that has covered his work. John is the English rendering of that name rather than a name he uses day to day. People searching for John Shina of West Bloomfield are most often looking for Hanna Shina. A Common Chaldean Story This pattern is ordinary in Chaldean families. An immigrant arrives carrying a given name in Aramaic — a name given at baptism, used by parents and grandparents, spoken in the dialect of the village — and finds that American schools, employers, customers, and paperwork reach for the English equivalent instead. Both names then follow the person through a life lived in two countries: one used at home, at church, and among relatives, the other appearing on forms, storefront signs, and in the mouths of neighbors. Neither name displaces the other. That is why a search for one spelling of a Chaldean name so often turns up the other, and why families keep both without any sense of contradiction. It is a small, durable record of what immigration actually does to a life: it does not replace what came before, it adds a second language on top of it. Who Hanna Shina Is Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif, Iraq, attended Baghdad College, and after immigrating to the United States opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit. He has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for more than 40 years and has sat on the board of Shenandoah Country Club for more than 20. Read the full biography of Hanna Shina , his role in founding the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world , and the story of his two decades at Shenandoah Country Club and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor . Questions About the Name Is John Shina the same person as Hanna Shina? Yes. Hanna is the Syriac and Aramaic form of the name John, so John Shina and Hanna Shina are the same name in two languages and refer to the same man: Hanna Shina, the Chaldean-American community leader in West Bloomfield, Michigan who is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center and, since 2025, the first Mayor of Shenandoah. He goes by Hanna. What does the name Hanna mean? Hanna (حنّا) comes from the Hebrew Yoḥanan, meaning “God is gracious” — the name of the Apostle John. It passed from Hebrew into Aramaic and Arabic as Hanna, and into English as John. Among Chaldean and other Arab Christian families, a man named Hanna is a man named John. Does Hanna Shina go by John? Hanna Shina goes by Hanna. John is simply the English equivalent of his name rather than a name he uses day to day, which is why people who know him, and the organizations he serves, call him Hanna Shina. Who is Hanna Shina of West Bloomfield, Michigan? Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman, and philanthropist in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Born in Telkaif, Iraq, he opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit, is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, has served the Chaldean foundations and church for more than 40 years, and in 2025 was named the first Mayor of Shenandoah by Shenandoah Country Club. Related Pages Biography of Hanna Shina His full life story, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. Telkaif, Iraq The village on the Nineveh Plain where Hanna Shina was born. Frequently Asked Questions More answers about Hanna Shina's life and work. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # The Founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center URL: https://hannashina.com/founders Home › Founders The Founders The Eight Founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center On October 20, 2023, the Chaldean Cultural Center honored eight founders with plaques at its 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Hanna Shina is one of them. The eight are Rosemary Antone, Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, Victor Saroki and Hanna Shina. Key Facts Gala date October 20, 2023 Location Shenandoah Country Club, West Bloomfield, MI Founders honored Eight Museum opened May 2017, conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor The Eight, in Alphabetical Order Rosemary Antone Served as the Chaldean Cultural Center's first board chair. She died in 2009, eight years before the museum she helped begin opened its doors, and was honored posthumously among the founders. Virjean Arabo Honored as a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Francis Boji Honored as a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Raad Kathawa Honored as a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Mary Romaya A primary founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center, who served as its first executive director for six years, until 2017 — the year the museum opened to the public. Josephine Sarafa Honored as a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Victor Saroki Honored as a founder of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Hanna Shina A founder and founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, born in Telkaif, Iraq and living in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for more than 40 years and the board of Shenandoah Country Club, where the museum stands, for more than 20. He appears inside the museum itself: a hologram in the Chaldean Village Life gallery portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Read the biography of Hanna Shina What They Founded The Chaldean Cultural Center is the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. It sits inside Shenandoah Country Club at 5600 Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and tells the story of an Aramaic-speaking Catholic people from northern Iraq across five galleries: Ancient Mesopotamia, Faith and Church, Chaldean Village Life, Journey to America, and Chaldeans Today. It exists because a group of people decided that a community with a four-thousand-year memory should not rely on memory alone. Read more about Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center . Twenty Years From Idea to Museum The idea was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor. For a decade it lived as committee work, fundraising, and the patient collection of objects and testimony. The Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan acquired Shenandoah Country Club and renovated it, setting aside museum space within the building. Construction of the galleries began in 2013, and the museum opened to the public in May 2017 — fourteen years after the first conversation, and twenty years before the anniversary gala counted from the founding effort itself. The Gala The 20th Anniversary Founders Gala was held on October 20, 2023 at Shenandoah. The evening brought the Arabian Knights folk dancing group and a zurna player, traditional Chaldean bread, tours of the museum galleries, and a documentary about the Center. Eight founders received plaques. It was, by design, a night that looked backward at twenty years of work and forward at the institution those years produced. The evening was covered by the Chaldean News in “Celebrating 20 Years: The Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala” . Related Pages Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role as a founding board member of the museum. Honors and Recognition The honors and recognition Hanna Shina has received. The Chaldean Community of Metro Detroit The community and institutions the founders built the museum for. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # The Chaldean Community of Metro Detroit URL: https://hannashina.com/chaldean-community-detroit Home › Chaldean Community, Detroit Context The Chaldean Community of Metro Detroit Chaldeans are an Aramaic-speaking Catholic people from northern Iraq, and Metro Detroit is home to the largest Chaldean population outside the Middle East. Over several generations that community moved from immigrant storefronts in Detroit to established life in the suburbs of Oakland and Macomb counties, and built churches, foundations, a country club and a museum along the way. Hanna Shina is one of the community leaders who helped build those institutions: he is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Who Chaldeans Are Chaldeans belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in communion with Rome that keeps its own liturgy and its own liturgical language. That language is Aramaic — the modern spoken form is often called Sureth — and it is the same family of speech used in the region for thousands of years. Chaldeans are rooted in the Nineveh Plain of northern Iraq, in towns such as Telkaif near Mosul, and identify by church, village, and family in roughly that order. Being Christian and Aramaic-speaking in a majority-Muslim, Arabic-speaking country shaped the community long before emigration: it made the church the center of communal life and made village ties unusually durable. Both of those traits travelled to Michigan intact. Telkaif, the ancestral village of most Metro Detroit Chaldeans and the town Hanna Shina was born in , is where a great many of those family lines begin. Why Detroit Chaldean migration to Detroit began in the early twentieth century and grew across the decades that followed. Three things pulled people to this particular city. The first was work: the automobile industry, and Ford Motor Company above all, was hiring at wages that were widely reported back home and required no English to begin. The second was that Detroit already had an Arabic-speaking community, which meant a new arrival could find someone to translate a lease, a form, or a doctor’s question. The third was proximity to Canada, which shaped the routes people took and kept families connected across the border. Beyond those pulls, the mechanism was chain migration in its purest form. One man came, found work, wrote home, and sponsored a brother or a cousin. Because so many of those first arrivals came from the same handful of towns, the community that formed in Detroit was not a general Iraqi community but a village community relocated — people who already knew each other’s families. From Detroit to Oakland County The first Chaldean neighborhoods were inside the city, and the family business — the grocery, the party store, the coffee shop — was the standard first foothold. As those businesses succeeded and the second generation went through American schools, households moved outward, following the same suburban path many Detroit communities took in the second half of the twentieth century. Southfield, West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills and Farmington Hills in Oakland County, and Sterling Heights in Macomb, became the centers of Chaldean residential life. The move outward did not dissolve the community, which is the notable part. Parishes relocated or were founded anew in the suburbs, social clubs followed, and the same families who had been neighbors on a Detroit block became neighbors again several miles north. The 7 Mile corridor, where Hanna Shina ran his businesses , was one of the places that arc began. The Institutions What distinguishes Metro Detroit’s Chaldean community is how much of it is institutionalized. The parishes came first and remain the backbone. Around them grew foundations and charitable organizations that handle resettlement, scholarships, and aid to families in Iraq. The Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan acquired Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield and renovated it, giving the community a gathering place substantial enough to host its own civic life — and, inside the same building, museum space. That space became the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world, conceived in 2003 and opened to the public in 2017. Its five galleries carry the story from ancient Mesopotamia through village life and the journey to America to Chaldeans today. Hanna Shina’s role in founding the Chaldean Cultural Center and his long service on the board of Shenandoah Country Club sit at the intersection of those two institutions. The People Who Built Them Institutions like these are built by named people doing unglamorous work over decades — committee meetings, fundraising calls, board terms nobody applauds. The Chaldean Cultural Center recognized eight of them by name at its 20th Anniversary Founders Gala on October 20, 2023. Read about the eight founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center and the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield . Related Pages Telkaif, Iraq The ancestral village where Hanna Shina and many Metro Detroit Chaldeans were born. 7 Mile, Detroit The corridor where Hanna Shina ran a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. Chaldean Cultural Center The museum Hanna Shina helped found in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Chaldean Town and 7 Mile: Where Hanna Shina Built His Businesses URL: https://hannashina.com/seven-mile-detroit Home › 7 Mile, Detroit Detroit 7 Mile Road and the Chaldean Businesses of Detroit After immigrating from Telkaif, Hanna Shina opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit — the corridor that was the commercial and social heart of Chaldean life in the city. He lives today in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where he is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center and, since 2025, the first Mayor of Shenandoah. Key Facts Former businesses A store, a coffee shop and a restaurant, 7 Mile area, Detroit Born Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Honor First Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 The 7 Mile Corridor Detroit’s mile roads run east to west across the city and its suburbs, and each one functions as a commercial spine: storefronts along the road, houses on the streets behind it. Seven Mile Road is one of those spines, and the stretch of it near Woodward Avenue became, over the middle decades of the twentieth century, the place where Chaldean immigrant business life in Detroit concentrated. What made a corridor like this work for new arrivals was that it required capital rather than credentials. A storefront could be leased, stocked, and opened by a family willing to work every hour it was open, and a foreign degree or an accent was no obstacle to selling groceries. For a community arriving from villages in northern Iraq, the mile-road storefront was the most accessible door into the American economy that Detroit had. What Chaldean Town Was The neighborhood along 7 Mile near Woodward came to be known as Chaldean Town. It was the first landing place for Chaldean immigrants in Detroit: the blocks where a newly arrived family could rent an apartment near relatives, hear Sureth spoken in the street, find a priest, buy the food they knew, and get a job from someone who had arrived a few years earlier. Places like it exist in every immigrant city, and they do the same work everywhere — they shorten the distance between getting off a plane and having a life. Chaldean Town was also, by design and by circumstance, temporary for most families. It was where people started, not where they intended to finish; as businesses succeeded, households moved north into Oakland County. What remained were the habits formed there, and the network of people who had known each other in that first neighborhood. The wider story of the Chaldean community of Metro Detroit begins on blocks like these. A Store, a Coffee Shop, and a Restaurant Hanna Shina opened three businesses in the 7 Mile area: a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. We do not have their names, their addresses, or the years they operated, and this site will not invent them. What can be said honestly is what each kind of business meant in that neighborhood. The store — the grocery or party store — was the family’s foothold. It was open long hours, staffed by whoever was in the household, and it converted labor directly into a foothold in a new country: a lease, a bank relationship, a credit history, eventually a house. More Chaldean families in Detroit began with a store than with anything else. The coffee shop was something different. It was where men gathered to speak Sureth, to drink tea and play cards, and above all to hear news — who had arrived, who was hiring, whose relative in Iraq needed papers, what had happened back home. In a community without a newspaper of its own in its first decades, the coffee shop was the newspaper. The restaurant fed people the food they had grown up on and gave the community somewhere to eat together: baptisms, funerals, ordinary Sundays. A restaurant is the point at which a business stops being only a livelihood and becomes a piece of communal infrastructure — a room the community can use. From Storefront to Institution The line from those three businesses to the rest of Hanna Shina’s work is not a long one. A store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant are all versions of the same act: making a place where a community can gather and be served. Decades later he was doing the same thing on a larger scale, helping to found the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world , and giving more than 40 years of service to the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church . The museum’s Journey to America gallery tells the story of arrivals like his, and its Chaldean Village Life gallery tells the story of what they left. Read the full biography of Hanna Shina for how the two connect. Related Pages Biography of Hanna Shina The full written account of his life, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. The Chaldean Community of Metro Detroit Who Chaldeans are, why they came to Detroit, and the institutions they built. Community Service Over 40 years of service to the Chaldean foundations and church. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center | Founding Board Member URL: https://hannashina.com/chaldean-cultural-center Home › Chaldean Cultural Center West Bloomfield, Michigan Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan — the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. The Center was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor, built out at Shenandoah Country Club beginning in 2013, and opened to the public in May 2017 at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. Hanna Shina, who was born in Telkaif, Iraq, also appears inside the museum itself as a hologram in its Chaldean Village Life gallery. Key Facts Role Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Museum conceived 2003, at Southfield Manor Construction began 2013 Museum opened May 2017 Address 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48323 Hologram Village Gallery — a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot The First Chaldean Museum in the World There are Chaldean parishes, Chaldean businesses, and Chaldean neighborhoods across Metro Detroit, but until 2017 there was nowhere in the world a family could walk into and see the whole Chaldean story assembled — Mesopotamia, the church, the village, the crossing, and the present tense — in one place. The Chaldean Cultural Center is that place, roughly 2,500 square feet of museum built at a cost of more than $2 million, and it exists because a group of community members, Hanna Shina among them, decided it had to. How It Began: Southfield Manor, 2003 The idea was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor. What began as a conversation among community members became a board, and the board became a twenty-year project. Shenandoah Country Club had been acquired by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan, and it was there — inside the building where the community already gathered for weddings, funerals, and meetings — that the museum would eventually be housed. Placing it there was itself a decision about audience: the museum would not wait for visitors to seek it out, it would stand in the room the community already walked through. Building the Museum, 2013–2017 Shenandoah was renovated to house the museum space, construction began in 2013, and the doors opened in May 2017 — fourteen years after that first conversation. Fourteen years is the real measure of what founding board service asks of a person: meetings, design review, fundraising, artifact acquisition, and the patience to keep an unfinished idea alive long enough to be finished. Hanna Shina's four decades with the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church had been the training for exactly this. Inside the Five Galleries Ancient Mesopotamia The deep past of the Chaldean people, including a replica of the Code of Hammurabi and a replica of the Gate of Ishtar. Faith and Church Priests' vestments, an Aramaic liturgy book, an oil lamp from the time of Christ, and a replica of a baptismal font from a church in Mosul. Chaldean Village Life Everyday life in Telkaif — the village Hanna Shina was born in. This is the gallery where his hologram appears. Journey to America Immigration stories and documents tracing the passage from the Nineveh Plain to Metro Detroit. Chaldeans Today The community as it lives now, generations after the first arrivals. The Hologram in the Village Gallery In the Chaldean Village Life gallery, visitors meet Hanna Shina himself. He is portrayed in a hologram as a grandfather teaching his grandson how to use a slingshot — an ordinary afternoon in Telkaif, performed by a man who lived those afternoons. Children who have only ever known Michigan stand in a museum in West Bloomfield and are shown village life by someone who was there. It is a quietly perfect piece of casting. The gallery is about Telkaif; Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif. The subject of the exhibit and the man explaining it are the same person. His full account of the village is in the Hanna Shina oral history film, in his own words . “The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.” — Hanna Shina The Founders On October 20, 2023, at the Chaldean Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club, eight founders were honored with plaques: Hanna Shina Rosemary Antone (died 2009) Virjean Arabo Francis Boji Raad Kathawa Mary Romaya Josephine Sarafa Victor Saroki That evening is described further on the page of honors and recognition for Hanna Shina . Why It Mattered to Him Asked what the Center is for, Hanna Shina answers by naming the people it was built for: the children of the Chaldean community, especially those born and raised in the United States, so they can see how life was before in the mother country. That is the whole argument for the museum in one sentence, and it comes from a man who made the crossing himself and knows precisely which parts of a life do not survive it. His own path — Telkaif, Baghdad College, immigration, and the store, coffee shop and restaurant on 7 Mile described in his biography — is the path the museum's Journey to America gallery describes. He helped build the room, and he is in it. The building that houses it is covered on the Shenandoah Country Club page . Sources Chaldean Cultural Center — official website Chaldean News: “Honoring History: Birth of the Chaldean Cultural Center” Related Pages The Eight Founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center The full list of founders honored at the 20th Anniversary Founders Gala. Hanna Shina, in His Own Words The Digital Storytelling oral history film published by the Chaldean Cultural Center. Hanna Shina and Shenandoah Country Club The building that houses the museum, and Hanna Shina's 20+ years on its board. The Biography of Hanna Shina From Telkaif, Iraq to West Bloomfield, Michigan. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina at Shenandoah Country Club | Mayor of Shenandoah URL: https://hannashina.com/shenandoah Home › Shenandoah Country Club West Bloomfield, Michigan Hanna Shina and Shenandoah Country Club Hanna Shina has served on the board of Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan for more than 20 years, and in 2025 the club named him its first Mayor of Shenandoah — a title never given to anyone before him. Shenandoah is owned by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan and is the building that houses the Chaldean Cultural Center, the museum Hanna Shina helped found. Key Facts Board service Shenandoah Country Club, 20+ years Honor First Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 Location 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48323 Also houses The Chaldean Cultural Center, opened May 2017 Twenty Years on the Board More than two decades of board service is a long tenure anywhere. At Shenandoah it spans the reconstruction of the club, the arrival of the museum, and the growth of a membership now numbering in the thousands. Board work of that length is mostly unglamorous — budgets, facilities, membership, staffing, and the steady arbitration of a community's competing good ideas — and it is the kind of work that only gets done by people who intend to still be there in ten years. It also overlapped precisely with the project that became the museum. While the board was running a club, it was also making room, literally, for Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center to take physical shape inside the building. 2025 Mayor of Shenandoah In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah Country Club named Hanna Shina “Mayor of Shenandoah.” No one had held the title before him. It is an affectionate honor and an exact one: it describes a man who has been present, year after year, in the place where his community gathers — the room where the weddings, the funerals, the galas, and the board meetings happen. Who is the Mayor of Shenandoah? Hanna Shina. In 2025 Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named him the first Mayor of Shenandoah in the club's history. What Shenandoah Is The organization behind the club was established as the Chaldean Iraqi Association in 1943 and later became the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan. It acquired Shenandoah in 1989 and reconstructed the property in 2002. Today the club counts roughly 1,500 members and nearly 5,000 family members, with a ballroom, dining, fitness facilities, an Olympic-size pool, and a golf course. It is also the building that houses the Chaldean Cultural Center. Shenandoah was renovated to hold the museum space, construction began in 2013, and the museum opened to the public in May 2017 at 5600 Walnut Lake Road — the same address as the club. A Club and a Community In some places a country club board is a hobby. In this one it is community infrastructure. Shenandoah is where a Chaldean family in Metro Detroit is likely to hold a wedding, mark a funeral lunch, attend a fundraising gala, and — since 2017 — take their children to see their own history in a museum. Serving on that board means being responsible for the community's living room. Read that way, Hanna Shina's twenty years at Shenandoah are of a piece with his four decades of service to the Chaldean community and with the biography that begins in Telkaif . The Mayor of Shenandoah title sits alongside his other recognitions on the honors page . Related Pages Honors and Recognition Every documented honor Hanna Shina has received, including Mayor of Shenandoah. West Bloomfield, Michigan The city Hanna Shina calls home, and where Shenandoah is located. The Chaldean Cultural Center The museum housed inside Shenandoah, and Hanna Shina's role as a founder. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina's Community Service | 40+ Years with the Chaldean Community URL: https://hannashina.com/community Home › Community Service Forty Years of Service to the Chaldean Community Hanna Shina has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for over 40 years. A Chaldean-American community leader who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and was born in Telkaif, Iraq, he built his working life around a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit, and built his civic life around the institutions his community depended on — work that led, in time, to his founding role at the Chaldean Cultural Center. Key Facts Community service Chaldean foundations and church, 40+ years Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Board service Shenandoah Country Club, 20+ years Former businesses A store, a coffee shop and a restaurant, 7 Mile area, Detroit Born Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Four Decades of Service Forty years is not a project; it is a habit. It means being on the list of people who are called when something needs organizing, and staying on that list through several decades of a community's life — through the arrival of new immigrant waves, the building of parishes and halls, the aging of one generation and the coming of age of the next. Very little of that work leaves a public record, which is exactly why it is worth naming. The measurable outcomes — a museum that opened, a club that thrived, a parish that stayed solvent — rest on thousands of hours of unrecorded meetings and phone calls. The Chaldean Foundations The Chaldean community of Metro Detroit organized itself early and thoroughly, and its foundations and associations have carried the practical load: welcoming new arrivals, supporting families in difficulty, funding scholarships, sustaining cultural life, and maintaining the halls where the community meets. Hanna Shina has given more than four decades to that work. One of those institutions became the building at the center of Chaldean civic life in West Bloomfield — Shenandoah Country Club, where Hanna Shina has served on the board for more than 20 years . The Church The Chaldean church has been the organizing center of Chaldean life in Metro Detroit since Mother of God Church opened in 1948 as Michigan's first Chaldean Catholic church. Before there were associations, foundations, or a museum, there was the parish: the place where a language was kept alive in liturgy, where families were married and buried, and where new arrivals found the first people who knew their village. Hanna Shina has given more than four decades to the work of the Chaldean church. That service belongs to the same instinct that produced everything else on this site — the conviction that a community is only as strong as the institutions its own members are willing to carry. Preserving the Story Service to a growing community eventually raises the question of how its story is kept. In 2003, at Southfield Manor, a group of community members — Hanna Shina among them — set out to answer it by building a museum. The Chaldean Cultural Center opened in May 2017 at Shenandoah Country Club and is the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. His part in it is told on the page about Hanna Shina's role at the Chaldean Cultural Center . He is also inside the exhibit: a hologram in the Chaldean Village Life gallery portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. And in his words, the Center exists “for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.” What Service Looks Like There is a recognizable arc to Hanna Shina's generation of Chaldean immigrants: arrive with little, work brutal hours in a store or a shop, bring over the next relative, and then — once the family is steady — turn outward and start building the things a community needs but no single family can own. A parish hall. A foundation. A club. Eventually a museum. Businesses first, institutions second. The people who did both are the reason Metro Detroit's Chaldean community has a written and exhibited history rather than only an orally passed one. That story begins, in his case, in a village on the Nineveh Plain — the full account is in the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield , and in his own words in the Digital Storytelling film . Related Pages The Chaldean Community of Metro Detroit Who Chaldeans are, why they came to Detroit, and the institutions they built. Chaldean Cultural Center The museum Hanna Shina helped found in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Honors & Recognition The gala tribute and the hologram that honor his decades of service. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Honors and Recognition | Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/honors Home › Honors and Recognition Recognition Honors and Recognition Hanna Shina has received two documented honors of public record: in 2025, Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named him its first Mayor of Shenandoah, a title never before given to anyone in the club's history; and on October 20, 2023, he was honored with a plaque as one of eight founders recognized at the Chaldean Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala. Key Facts 2025 honor First Mayor of Shenandoah 2023 honor Founders Gala plaque, Chaldean Cultural Center, October 20, 2023 2017 Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Youth Sports trophies received in Telkaif, Iraq The Record 2025 First Mayor of Shenandoah Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named Hanna Shina 'Mayor of Shenandoah' — the first time in the club's history that the title has been given to anyone. It followed more than 20 years of service on the club's board. 2023 Founders Gala Plaque, Chaldean Cultural Center On October 20, 2023, at the Chaldean Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club, eight founders were honored with plaques. Hanna Shina was one of them, alongside Rosemary Antone (who died in 2009), Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, and Victor Saroki. 2017 Founding Board Member, Chaldean Cultural Center The Chaldean Cultural Center — the first and only Chaldean museum in the world — opened to the public in May 2017 at 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield. Hanna Shina is one of its founders and a founding board member, a role that began with the Center's conception in 2003 at Southfield Manor. Youth Sports Trophies in Telkaif In his youth in Telkaif, Iraq, Hanna Shina received a number of trophies for his participation in sports — the earliest recognition on this list, and the first sign of a man who tends to be counted on. Recorded for the Archive Some recognition arrives as a plaque. Some arrives as a decision to preserve a person. The Chaldean Cultural Center chose Hanna Shina as a subject of its Digital Storytelling oral history series, publishing a 21-minute film about his life on August 3, 2023 — a record kept in the community’s own archive. It can be watched on the His Story page, Hanna Shina in his own words . The Center went further and cast him in the museum itself. In the Chaldean Village Life gallery, a hologram portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Being chosen to be the exhibit — to stand in for village life itself in the first and only Chaldean museum in the world — is its own kind of honor, and an unusually permanent one. That story is told on the page about Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center . The honors read best against the life that produced them: the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield , and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor in the context of the club . Related Pages Hanna Shina and Shenandoah Country Club The 2025 Mayor of Shenandoah honor, in the context of 20+ years of board service. The Eight Founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center The 2023 Founders Gala honorees, including Hanna Shina. News Coverage of Hanna Shina and the institutions he helped build. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina in His Own Words | Digital Storytelling Interview URL: https://hannashina.com/his-story Home › His Story Oral History Hanna Shina, In His Own Words In August 2023 the Chaldean Cultural Center published a 21-minute oral history film in which Hanna Shina tells the story of his life, from Telkaif to Detroit. Hanna Shina is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and the film — “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” — is the fullest first-person record of his life that exists. Key Facts Film “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” Published August 3, 2023 by the Chaldean Cultural Center Length 21 minutes Born Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Play the film — 21 minutes “Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina” — watch on YouTube . About the Film The film was published by the Chaldean Cultural Center on August 3, 2023 and runs 21 minutes. It belongs to the Center's Digital Storytelling series, an oral history project that records Chaldean lives in the subjects' own voices — the same preservation instinct that produced the Chaldean Cultural Center that Hanna Shina helped found , applied to people rather than objects. What He Talks About He begins where he began: Telkaif. He speaks of the school in which he studied and of walking the streets of the village, street by street — the geography of a boyhood recalled in detail decades later and half a world away. He recalls his participation in sports there, and the trophies that came with it. Then comes America: the crossing, and the working life he built in Detroit, where he opened a store, a coffee shop, and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area. And finally the cultural center — why a museum mattered to him, and who he believes it is for. The written version of that arc is the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield , and the service that ran alongside it is described on his community service page . In His Words “The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country.” — Hanna Shina “…and the school in which I studied, and I would walk around all streets of Telkaif, street by street.” — Hanna Shina The man speaking in this film is also standing in the museum: a hologram in the Chaldean Village Life gallery portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Both the film and the hologram are considered on the honors and recognition page , and common questions are answered on the Hanna Shina FAQ . Related Pages Biography of Hanna Shina The full written account of his life, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. Telkaif, Iraq The ancestral village where Hanna Shina was born and raised. Chaldean Cultural Center The museum Hanna Shina helped found, where he appears as a hologram. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Telkaif, Iraq — Where Hanna Shina Was Born URL: https://hannashina.com/telkaif Home › Telkaif Origins Telkaif: The Village Hanna Shina Comes From Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif — also spelled Tel Keppe — a historically Chaldean town in northern Iraq near Mosul that is the ancestral home of most Chaldean families in Metro Detroit. He lives today in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where he is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center and, since 2025, the first Mayor of Shenandoah. Key Facts Born Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Also spelled Tel Kaif, Telkeppe Location Nineveh Plain, near Mosul, northern Iraq Significance Ancestral home of most Chaldean families in Metro Detroit Educated at Baghdad College Now lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan What and Where Telkaif Is Telkaif sits on the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq, a short drive from Mosul, in a landscape that has been continuously inhabited for as long as there has been recorded history. The name appears in English in several forms — Telkaif, Tel Keppe, Tel Kaif and Telkeppe are all the same town — because it is transliterated from Arabic and from the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic still spoken there. For centuries it was overwhelmingly Chaldean Catholic: one church calendar, one dialect, one set of family names repeating down the generations. Why Telkaif Matters to Metro Detroit The great majority of Chaldean families in the Detroit area trace their origins to this single town. That is unusual, and it explains a great deal about the community here. When a whole diaspora comes from one place, the ties do not thin out across a region — people already know one another’s families, parishes and grandparents before they meet. The result is an unusually tight-knit community, one capable of raising parishes, halls, foundations and eventually a museum out of its own membership. Growing Up There Hanna Shina spent his youth in Telkaif, where he went to school and, as a young athlete, received a number of trophies for his participation in sports. He later studied at Baghdad College, the Jesuit-run secondary school in Baghdad. When the Chaldean Cultural Center filmed his oral history in 2023, what he returned to was not an abstraction but a map he still carries in his head: “…and the school in which I studied, and I would walk around all streets of Telkaif, street by street.” “…and the school in which I studied, and I would walk around all streets of Telkaif, street by street.” Hanna Shina, Digital Storytelling (2023) Telkaif in the Museum The Chaldean Village Life gallery at the Chaldean Cultural Center recreates daily life in Telkaif for visitors who have never seen it — the household objects, the work, the rhythm of a village year. Hanna Shina appears in that gallery himself, as a hologram portraying a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Read more about Hanna Shina’s role at the Chaldean Cultural Center . From Telkaif to West Bloomfield From Telkaif he came to the United States, opened a store, a coffee shop and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit, and then turned outward to the institutions his community needed. He now lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where he serves both institutions most closely associated with him. The full arc is told in the biography of Hanna Shina, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield , and the honors it produced are listed on the honors and recognition page . A note on the name itself: Hanna is the Syriac form of John, so in English his name is John Shina . Related Pages Biography of Hanna Shina His full life story, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. Chaldean Community in Detroit How Telkaif families built Chaldean life in Metro Detroit. Chaldean Cultural Center The museum where Telkaif village life is recreated for visitors. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina | West Bloomfield, Michigan Community Leader URL: https://hannashina.com/west-bloomfield Home › West Bloomfield Where He Lives Hanna Shina in West Bloomfield, Michigan Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and serves the two institutions most closely identified with Chaldean-American life there: Shenandoah Country Club, where he has sat on the board for more than 20 years and was named the club’s first Mayor of Shenandoah in 2025, and the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world, of which he is a founder and founding board member. Both are at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. Key Facts Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Shenandoah board service 20+ years 2025 honor First Mayor of Shenandoah Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Museum address 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48323 Museum opened 2017 A West Bloomfield Resident West Bloomfield is where Hanna Shina makes his home today, after a working life that began in Telkaif, Iraq and passed through the storefronts of the 7 Mile corridor in Detroit. He remains active in the township’s civic and club life — the kind of member who is still on the list of people called when something needs organizing. West Bloomfield and the Chaldean Community West Bloomfield Township, in Oakland County, is one of the centers of Chaldean-American life in the United States. Families who first settled in Detroit moved north and west across the second half of the twentieth century, and West Bloomfield became a place where the community’s parishes, clubs, foundations and — finally — its museum could stand together in one township. Shenandoah Country Club, 5600 Walnut Lake Road Shenandoah Country Club, acquired by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan, functions as a gathering place for the whole community as much as a club. Hanna Shina has served on its board for more than 20 years, and in 2025 the club named him “Mayor of Shenandoah” — the first time in its history the title has been given. Read the full account on the Shenandoah Country Club and Mayor of Shenandoah page . The Chaldean Cultural Center The Chaldean Cultural Center occupies museum space inside the same address. Conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor, built beginning in 2013 and opened in 2017, it is the first and only Chaldean museum in the world, and Hanna Shina is one of its founders. His part in it — including the hologram of him in the Chaldean Village Life gallery — is told on the page about Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center . Metro Detroit His life has spanned the region: Detroit, where he opened a store, a coffee shop and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area; and then Oakland County — Southfield, where the Cultural Center was conceived at Southfield Manor, along with Bloomfield Hills, Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield, the corridor where Metro Detroit’s Chaldean community largely settled. The route he took is set out in the biography of Hanna Shina , and it starts in Telkaif, the village he comes from . Related Pages Shenandoah Country Club The club where Hanna Shina serves on the board and became Mayor of Shenandoah. Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role as a founding board member of the museum. Chaldean Community in Detroit How West Bloomfield became a center of Chaldean-American life. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina in the Press | Articles, Film and Mentions URL: https://hannashina.com/press Home › Press Coverage Hanna Shina in the Press Hanna Shina has been covered by the Chaldean News and featured by the Chaldean Cultural Center in its Digital Storytelling oral history series. The published record below documents his role as a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and his recognition at the Center’s 20th Anniversary Founders Gala in October 2023. References Chaldean Cultural Center / YouTube · August 3, 2023 Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina A 21-minute oral history film in which Hanna Shina describes growing up in Telkaif, the school he studied at, and why the Chaldean Cultural Center exists for the children of the community. Read at Chaldean Cultural Center / YouTube Chaldean News · November 1, 2023 Celebrating 20 Years: The Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala Reports on the Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club and names Hanna Shina among the eight founders honored with plaques. Read at Chaldean News Chaldean News · May 30, 2024 Honoring History: Birth of the Chaldean Cultural Center Traces the museum from its conception in 2003 to its opening, identifies Hanna Shina as a founding board member, and describes the hologram of him in the Chaldean Village Life gallery. Read at Chaldean News Click On Detroit / WDIV · December 3, 2019 Metro Detroit home to world's first and only Chaldean museum Background coverage of the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield — the museum Hanna Shina helped found — and what its galleries hold. Read at Click On Detroit / WDIV Media Inquiries Journalists, researchers and community organizations may reach Hanna Shina through the contact page . For background before you write, the fullest accounts on this site are the biography of Hanna Shina , his role at the Chaldean Cultural Center , and the Digital Storytelling film in his own words . Related Pages His Story The Digital Storytelling oral history film, in Hanna Shina's own words. News and Updates News and updates about Hanna Shina. About This Site How this biography is sourced. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Photos of Hanna Shina | West Bloomfield, Michigan URL: https://hannashina.com/gallery Home › Gallery Gallery Photographs Photographs of Hanna Shina, a Chaldean-American community leader who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan — at the Chaldean Cultural Center he helped found, at Shenandoah Country Club where he serves on the board, and among the community he has served for more than 40 years. Portrait — West Bloomfield, Michigan PLACEHOLDER-gallery-01.jpg At the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala, October 20, 2023 PLACEHOLDER-gallery-02.jpg At Shenandoah Country Club, 5600 Walnut Lake Road PLACEHOLDER-gallery-03.jpg Inside the Chaldean Cultural Center PLACEHOLDER-gallery-04.jpg With fellow founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center PLACEHOLDER-gallery-05.jpg At a Chaldean community gathering in Metro Detroit PLACEHOLDER-gallery-06.jpg During the Digital Storytelling oral history filming, 2023 PLACEHOLDER-gallery-07.jpg Named Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 PLACEHOLDER-gallery-08.jpg These eight images are placeholders. To publish the real photographs, replace the files in src/assets/ keeping the same names — PLACEHOLDER-gallery-01.jpg through PLACEHOLDER-gallery-08.jpg — in the order listed under each frame above. The alt text and captions are already written and will carry over. More context for these scenes: Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center , Shenandoah Country Club and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor , and the biography of Hanna Shina . Related Pages Biography of Hanna Shina The full biography, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield. His Story The Digital Storytelling oral history film. Hanna Shina in West Bloomfield His life and community in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Contact Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/contact Home › Contact Get in Touch Contact Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and welcomes messages from the Chaldean community, from journalists and researchers writing about the Chaldean Cultural Center, and from anyone with a photograph, document or recollection worth adding to the record. Use the form below and your note will reach him. Send a Message Name Email Subject Message Send message West Bloomfield, Michigan Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Oakland County, Michigan, and serves both Shenandoah Country Club and the Chaldean Cultural Center at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. More on Hanna Shina in West Bloomfield, Michigan . Phone and email: [email to be added] Press Inquiries Journalists can review the published record first on the Hanna Shina press page , then write using the form. Useful background: the biography of Hanna Shina and his role at the Chaldean Cultural Center . Related Pages About This Site How this biography is sourced. Press Published coverage of Hanna Shina. FAQ Direct answers to common questions about Hanna Shina. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # News and Updates | Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/news Home › News Journal News and Updates News and updates about Hanna Shina, a Chaldean-American community leader who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center and, since 2025, the first Mayor of Shenandoah at Shenandoah Country Club. 2025 Hanna Shina Named the First Mayor of Shenandoah In 2025, Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named Hanna Shina 'Mayor of Shenandoah' — the first time in the club's history that the title has been given to anyone. Read the full story October 20, 2023 Hanna Shina Honored at the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala On October 20, 2023, at the Chaldean Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club, eight founders were honored with plaques. Hanna Shina was one of them. Read the full story For the fuller record, see the biography of Hanna Shina , his honors and recognition , and press coverage of Hanna Shina . Related Pages Honors and Recognition Hanna Shina's honors, including the Mayor of Shenandoah title. Shenandoah Country Club Two decades on the board and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor. Press Published coverage of Hanna Shina. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina Named the First Mayor of Shenandoah | Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/news/mayor-of-shenandoah-2025 Home › News › Hanna Shina Named the First Mayor of Shenandoah News · 2025 Hanna Shina Named the First Mayor of Shenandoah In 2025, Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan named Hanna Shina “Mayor of Shenandoah” — the first time in the club’s history that the title has been given to anyone. Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader who has served on the club’s board for more than 20 years and is a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. A Title With No Precedent Clubs give out plenty of honors, but they rarely invent one. Naming a Mayor of Shenandoah is less an award than a description: it names the person the room turns to. That the club created the title rather than assigning an existing one says something about the length and the ordinariness of the service behind it — two decades of board meetings, committees and events that no one writes down. What Shenandoah Is Shenandoah Country Club sits at 5600 Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield. Acquired by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan, it functions as a gathering place for the whole Chaldean community of Metro Detroit as much as a country club — the place where weddings, banquets and community fundraisers happen. It also houses the Chaldean Cultural Center, whose museum space was built inside the property. Twenty Years on the Board Hanna Shina has served on the Shenandoah board for more than 20 years, a stretch that covers the acquisition and renovation of the property, the construction of the museum beginning in 2013, its opening in 2017, and the Founders Gala held there in October 2023. He remains active at the club today, in West Bloomfield, where he lives. Read Next More background: Shenandoah Country Club and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor , Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center , and the biography of Hanna Shina . Hanna Shina Honored at the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala All news and updates about Hanna Shina Related Pages All News and Updates More news and updates about Hanna Shina. Honors and Recognition Hanna Shina's honors, including the Mayor of Shenandoah title. The Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role as a founding board member. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Hanna Shina Honored at the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala | Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/news/founders-gala-2023 Home › News › Hanna Shina Honored at the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala News · October 20, 2023 Hanna Shina Honored at the Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala On October 20, 2023, at the Chaldean Cultural Center’s 20th Anniversary Founders Gala at Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan, eight founders were honored with plaques. Hanna Shina was one of them, recognized for his role as a founder and founding board member of the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. The Eight Founders Honored The founders recognized that evening were Rosemary Antone (who died in 2009), Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, Victor Saroki and Hanna Shina — the group whose work carried the Center from an idea to an institution. Twenty Years, 2003 to 2023 The Chaldean Cultural Center was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor. Shenandoah Country Club was acquired by the Chaldean Iraqi American Association of Michigan and renovated to house museum space. Construction began in 2013, and the museum opened in 2017 at 5600 Walnut Lake Road in West Bloomfield. The gala marked twenty years from the first conversation to a museum with galleries the community’s children can walk through. In the Exhibit Itself Hanna Shina appears inside the museum as well as on its founding board: a hologram in the Chaldean Village Life gallery portrays him as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. In the oral history film the Center published two months before the gala, he described what the museum is for. “ The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country. ” Hanna Shina, Digital Storytelling (2023) Read Next More background: Shenandoah Country Club and the Mayor of Shenandoah honor , Hanna Shina and the Chaldean Cultural Center , and the biography of Hanna Shina . Hanna Shina Named the First Mayor of Shenandoah All news and updates about Hanna Shina Related Pages All News and Updates More news and updates about Hanna Shina. Honors and Recognition Hanna Shina's honors, including the Mayor of Shenandoah title. The Chaldean Cultural Center Hanna Shina's role as a founding board member. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # Quick Answers About Hanna Shina | West Bloomfield, Michigan URL: https://hannashina.com/answers Home › Quick Answers Quick Answers Quick Answers Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman and philanthropist in West Bloomfield, Michigan, born in Telkaif, Iraq, and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center. The twenty answers below are short, complete and standalone — each one can be read or quoted on its own. Key Facts Full name Hanna Shina Name in English John Shina Born in Telkaif (Tel Keppe), Iraq Lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan Known for Founding board member, Chaldean Cultural Center Honor First Mayor of Shenandoah, 2025 Who is Hanna Shina? Hanna Shina is a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman and philanthropist who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif, Iraq, and is one of the founders and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center, the first and only Chaldean museum in the world. Is Hanna Shina the same person as John Shina? Yes. Hanna is the Syriac and Aramaic form of the name John, so John Shina and Hanna Shina are the same name in two languages and refer to the same man. He goes by Hanna Shina. What does the name Hanna mean? Hanna descends from the Hebrew Yoḥanan, meaning "God is gracious" — the name of the Apostle John. In Arabic it is written حنّا, and in English it is rendered John. Hanna Shina therefore appears in English-language records as John Shina. How else is the name Hanna Shina spelled? Hanna Shina is also seen written as Hana Shina, Hanna Shena, and John Shina. All refer to the same man, Hanna Shina of West Bloomfield, Michigan. Where was Hanna Shina born? Hanna Shina was born in Telkaif, also written Tel Keppe, a village on the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq. Telkaif is the ancestral village of most Metro Detroit Chaldeans. What is Telkaif? Telkaif, or Tel Keppe, is a historically Chaldean Catholic town in northern Iraq and the ancestral village of most Chaldean families in Metro Detroit. Hanna Shina was born there and spent his youth there before immigrating to the United States. Where does Hanna Shina live now? Hanna Shina lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, in Oakland County — the same community that is home to Shenandoah Country Club and to the Chaldean Cultural Center at 5600 Walnut Lake Road. Where did Hanna Shina go to school? Hanna Shina was educated at Baghdad College, the Jesuit-run secondary school in Baghdad, Iraq. What businesses did Hanna Shina own? After immigrating to the United States, Hanna Shina opened a store, a coffee shop and a restaurant in the 7 Mile area of Detroit. What is the Chaldean Cultural Center? The Chaldean Cultural Center is the first and only Chaldean museum in the world, located at Shenandoah Country Club, 5600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan. Hanna Shina is one of its founders and a founding board member. When did the Chaldean Cultural Center open? The Chaldean Cultural Center was conceived in 2003 at Southfield Manor, construction began in 2013, and the museum opened to the public in 2017 at Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan. What galleries does the Chaldean Cultural Center have? The Chaldean Cultural Center has five galleries: Ancient Mesopotamia, Faith and Church, Chaldean Village Life, Journey to America, and Chaldeans Today. Hanna Shina appears in the Village Gallery. Is Hanna Shina in the museum? Yes. Hanna Shina is portrayed in a hologram in the Chaldean Cultural Center's Village Gallery, shown as a grandfather teaching his grandson to use a slingshot. Who are the founders of the Chaldean Cultural Center? On October 20, 2023, at the Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala, eight founders were honored with plaques: Rosemary Antone (d. 2009), Virjean Arabo, Francis Boji, Raad Kathawa, Mary Romaya, Josephine Sarafa, Victor Saroki, and Hanna Shina. What honor did Hanna Shina receive in 2023? Hanna Shina was honored with a plaque on October 20, 2023 at the Chaldean Cultural Center's 20th Anniversary Founders Gala, held at Shenandoah Country Club, as one of eight founders recognized that evening. What is Hanna Shina's role at Shenandoah Country Club? Hanna Shina has served on the board of Shenandoah Country Club in West Bloomfield, Michigan, for more than 20 years. What does "Mayor of Shenandoah" mean? In 2025, for the first time in the club's history, Shenandoah Country Club named Hanna Shina "Mayor of Shenandoah." He is the first person to hold the title. How long has Hanna Shina served the Chaldean community? Hanna Shina has served the Chaldean foundations and the Chaldean church for more than 40 years, alongside more than two decades of board service at Shenandoah Country Club. Is there a film about Hanna Shina? Yes. "Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina" is a 21-minute oral history film published by the Chaldean Cultural Center on YouTube on August 3, 2023, in which Hanna Shina tells his own story. What has Hanna Shina said about the Chaldean Cultural Center? In the oral history film, Hanna Shina said: "The cultural center is for the children of our Chaldean community, especially those who were born and raised here, to see how our life was before in our mother country." Related Pages The full Hanna Shina FAQ Longer answers to the questions asked most often about Hanna Shina. Biography of Hanna Shina The full account, from Telkaif to West Bloomfield, with a timeline. John Shina: the English form of the name Why Hanna Shina and John Shina are one name in two languages. About this site How this biography is sourced and how to send a correction. Last updated: August 28, 2026 --- # About This Site | The Official Biography of Hanna Shina URL: https://hannashina.com/about-this-site Home › About This Site Masthead About This Site This site is the official biography of Hanna Shina of West Bloomfield, Michigan — a Chaldean-American community leader, businessman and philanthropist, born in Telkaif, Iraq, and a founding board member of the Chaldean Cultural Center. Every fact published here is drawn from published reporting by the Chaldean News, the Chaldean Cultural Center and Click On Detroit, or provided directly by Hanna Shina and those close to him. How this site is sourced The standard is simple. A statement appears on this site only if it is documented in one of the sources listed below, or if it was given directly by Hanna Shina or by people who know him and can attest to it. Nothing is estimated, rounded up, or filled in for the sake of a tidier sentence. Where a detail is not documented — a date, a figure, a name — this site says so plainly or writes around the gap rather than guessing. That is why some passages describe context (what Telkaif is, what the 7 Mile corridor meant to Chaldean business owners) instead of asserting specifics that no published source supports. Corrections Corrections are welcome and are taken seriously. If something here is wrong, incomplete or out of date, please write through the contact page for Hanna Shina and describe the correction. Where a correction is supported, the page is updated and the date at the foot of the page is changed. Sources Chaldean News — Celebrating 20 Years: The Chaldean Cultural Center Founders Gala Reporting on the October 20, 2023 Founders Gala at which eight founders, Hanna Shina among them, were honored with plaques. Chaldean News — Honoring History: Birth of the Chaldean Cultural Center An account of how the Chaldean Cultural Center was conceived in 2003 and built at Shenandoah Country Club. Click On Detroit — Metro Detroit home to world's first and only Chaldean museum Local television coverage of the museum, its galleries and its place in Metro Detroit. Chaldean Cultural Center — Digital Storytelling | Hanna Shina The 21-minute oral history film published by the Chaldean Cultural Center on August 3, 2023. All quotations on this site come from it. A machine-readable summary of this site is published at /llms.txt , the full text of every page at /llms-full.txt , and the canonical entity record as JSON-LD at /hanna-shina.json . Citation is welcome; please link to https://hannashina.com/. Related Pages Hanna Shina in the press The articles, film and mentions this biography draws on. Quick answers about Hanna Shina Twenty short, standalone answers to the questions asked most often. Contact and corrections Send a correction, a photograph, or a press inquiry. Last updated: August 28, 2026