Metro
All About The Children
Detroit's largest and oldest day school celebrates its students' future.
Members of the Yeshiva Boys Choir playfully display Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Middle: Keynote speaker Sen. Evan Bayh. Top right: Past Golden Torah awardee, din-
Michigan cards during a performance honoring the evening's honoree, the company's ner chairperson and Yeshiva Guardian Ann Newman with Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
CEO and president.
Bottom Right: On the dais are U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, and Detroit
Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
I
n a time when many are reducing funds earmarked
for donations, more than 2,000 members of our
community showed rousing financial and physi-
cal support for the nearly 800 students of Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah.
The Southfield-based school's annual dinner brought
a crowd of more than 2,000, including a host of elected
leaders, to the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center
Nov. 2.
"How can we, in times of such uncertainty, collectively
and convincingly create such a magnificent evening?"
Yeshiva President Gary Torgow asked the huge crowd.
"How did this occur that the education and support of the
boys and girls of the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah become such a
high priority and deep concern for so many remarkable,
talented and charitable citizens and friends from all walks
of this great community?"
In response, he said, "If you take the opportunity to
stroll across Beth Yehudah's campuses in Oak Park and
Southfield; if you observe the physical growth and new
buildings, the new ideas, the scholarship, the academic
achievements, the love of Torah learning, the fresh and
uplifted faces of the beautiful children in nearly 100
classrooms from nursery to 12th grade, you will, as I do,
feel a tremendous sense of optimism and confidence in
the future of our institution, our Detroit community and
indeed our country:'
The evening, emceed by Dr. Conrad Giles, flowed opti-
mistically with a concentration on children and on the
future. Torgow praised donor Ann Newman for the pre-
sentation of a gift this past year allowing a major addition
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September 4 • 2008
to the campus where the 300 boys in grades 1-8 attend
classes. "She said to us, 'I will build what the Yeshiva
needs to provide our continuity, far into the future:"
Torgow said. "She did not say, (No, times are tough; let's
wait and see what next year will bring: She is a true hero
to our Yeshiva."
Something For Everyone
"As the largest and oldest Jewish day school in our com-
munity, Yeshiva Beth Yehudah continues to give the
greatest gift of all to our children: the love of learning;'
said Nancy Grosfeld, president of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit. "And we are grateful that the
Yeshiva also reaches out and generously extends this
same wonderful gift to the adults in our community
through programs like [the Jean and Theodore Weiss]
Partners in Torah:'
At the dinner, Grosfeld announced that a new com-
ponent would be added to the Yeshiva's adult education
program, "Just Say Know to Judaism:' attended by Jews
of varied affiliations and backgrounds. Sponsored by
Federation and the JCC, the program, said Grosfeld, "is
hitting the road" so that "individuals throughout the com-
munity can now invite the beauty of the Yeshiva, Judaism
and its treasures into their homes, offices and lives:'
The crowd, including a dais filled with political figures,
educators, rabbis and communal leaders, paid tribute to
Yeshiva dean Rabbi Avrohom Fishman, who passed away
this past summer.
The Yeshiva's 2008 Outstanding Leadership Award was
presented to CEO and president of Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Michigan, Dan Loepp. Phillip Tewel, owner of Jewel
Kosher Catering, received the annual Yeshiva Guardian
award. And when the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Boys Choir
The program's honoree, Dan Loepp, and Ann Newman,
take a minute to chat.
marched into the ballroom to perform under the direc-
tion of Rabbi Rocky Stewart, the crowd responded with
cheers.
Because again, it's all about the children.
"Giving our children the skills, the talents, ingenuity,
to lead this nation forward and to realize the American
dream of greater prosperity and progress for all is some-
thing your Yeshiva does so well:' U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh,
D-Ind., the evening's keynote speaker, told the crowd.
"Of your 800 students, you turn no one away because of
need. You have many scholarship students that attend the
school and that is a beautiful thing."
Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. summed up the
point of the event, describing it as providing "the fuel to
allow so many children, no matter their station or ability
to pay, with a first-class education, creating a new genera-
tion of young people who will be future leaders steeped in
Jewish and American tradition."
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