O

n Oct. 24, more than 
2,000 people celebrated 
an Evening of Hope and 
Renewal with the Yeshiva Beth 
Yehudah. They came to the Detroit 
Marriott Renaissance Center for an 
inspiring and heartwarming evening 
highlighting the special place the 
children of the Yeshiva occupy in the 
hearts and minds of our community. 
And they left feeling they were part 
of a transformative movement.
Based in Oak Park and 
Southfield, the Yeshiva is the edu-
cational home to 1,300 students 
in Pre-K through grade 12, who 
receive the essential foundations 
to become the next generation of 
leaders. Their campuses also house 
the Partners Detroit Adult Learning 
Program and the Yeshiva’s Scholars’ 
Kollel, a full-time postgraduate 
Talmud program with more than 40 
resident scholars.
More than 200 guests came to the 
dinner an hour early to participate 
in the Partners Detroit Torah study 
session. Each of them learned with a 
specially selected study partner from 
a curriculum developed by Partners 
educator Rabbi Chaim Fink. Along 
with the rest of the Yeshiva’s dinner 
guests, they were there for the chil-
dren of the Yeshiva, celebrating hope 
for the future of our people and our 
community. 

A PROGRAM TO REMEMBER
Rabbi Gershon Miller, the Yeshiva’s 
new dean, underscored the role of 
the children. “As we go through life 
and are beset by its many challenges 
and difficulties,” he told the crowd, 
“it is all too easy to become weary, 
negative and pessimistic about our 
world and the future. But then we look 
at our children. Through them we 
see a world of endless possibilities of 
goodness and kindness … of hope and 
renewal.”
Yeshiva president Gary Torgow 
inspired the audience with a Dvar 
Torah about Noah and the devastating 
flood brought upon his generation by 
the Almighty. “The Bible tells us when 
the floodwaters receded, Noah sent 
two birds from the ark, the raven and 
the dove,” he said. “The holy com-
mentator the Or Hachaim explains 
that the dove was sent on a mission 
which it completed by bringing back 
from the newly barren world an olive 
branch, indicating that the world was 
again habitable. The raven, in contrast, 
had no mission whatsoever. Noah sim-
ply discharged the raven from the ark 
strictly to banish it from his and his 
family’s presence.”
Torgow continued, “Throughout 
literature and world history, the raven 
represents darkness, despair, pessi-
mism and negativity. Edgar Allen 
Poe describes the raven as a symbol 

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Annual 
Dinner inspires thousands.

Celebrating 
Hope for 
the Future

JACKIE HEADAPOHL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL

20 | NOVEMBER 4 • 2021 

TOP: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the dais of the 
2021 Yeshiva Beth Yehudah Dinner. 
 
ABOVE: Mark Davidoff accepts the Yeshiva’s 
prestigious Guardian Award.

OUR COMMUNITY

ROBERT BRUCE PHOTOGRAPHY

