It was a blue evening for Yavneh Hebrew Academy. Dodger blue that is.

Dodger legend Tommy Lasorda was the guest speaker at the annual Yavneh Trustee dinner held February 7th at the Montage, Beverly Hills . The dinner, which raises money for the Yavneh scholarship fund, was a home run according to Rav and Dean, Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn “ One of the most magical parts of the evening was that our long time loyal supporters stood hand in hand with a whole new crop of young parents.”
Rabbi Moshe Dear, Headmaster, inspired Yavneh parents and supporters with stories of educational and personal triumphs from teachers, substitute teachers and students, both those who may be challenged in their learning and those who benefit from enrichment. Executive Director Lev Stark said the dinner this year allowed Yavneh to help 132 children with tuition scholarships.

Lasorda mingled with the guests, signed autographs and was the keynote speaker, offering a behind the scenes look at the Dodgers under his 20 years of management. He also helped auction off some sports memorabilia including signed baseballs, a 1981 Dodgers jersey signed by many players, as well as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird signed jerseys.

Under the leadership of dinner Chairmen Walter Feinblum and Daniel Uretsky, one of the signatures of the Yavneh Trustee Dinner has become the after party. At this year’s after party, themed as a sports bar, guests were able to play pool, challenge each other at darts, enjoy a photo booth and eat some more. Who doesn’t want to chow down on a pastrami Panini after dinner on a motzei shabbos?

At Yavneh, both Rabbis Einhorn and Dear are known for their encyclopedic recall of torah studies, but you may not know they are also huge baseball fans and their recall of baseball stats is astounding. What Mr. Lasorda doesn’t know is that Rabbi Dear is a long time Mets fan and Rabbi Einhorn a tried and true A’s fan. The feeling of the guests was that this dinner was a grand slam.