"It is … our duty as scientists to promote education, rational thinking and tolerance. We should also encourage our educated youth to become technological entrepreneurs. Those countries that nurture this knowhow will survive future financial and social crises. Let us advance science to create a better world for all."
Professor Dan Shechtman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2011, and member of World ORT’s Academic Advisory Council in Israel.

"I think education is the fundamental component to South Africa being able to become a successful nation. Education should not be based on race, class, gender or ethnicity and ORT has ensured that people from all walks of life are afforded an equal chance for a better tomorrow.”
Johnny Clegg, musician and anthropologist.

"Throughout the world, ORT schools provide a modern educational environment in which young people learn to appreciate time-honoured general values as well as get connected to Jewish values. The cutting edge technological orientation brought in by ORT positions Jewish schools at a much higher level, thus providing them with an ability to attract the generation who may otherwise remain unaffiliated."
Natan Sharansky

"I have had occasion before to remark on the fact that ORT's activity does not base itself upon 'charity' but upon self help. Both for the work of rebuilding human lives and the great task of building a new nation in Israel, the acquisition of skills assumes an enormous importance. I want to assure you of my greatest admiration for the cause in which you are so nobly engaged."
Albert Einstein

"Your vocational training activities … represent a constructive activity on a people-to-people level which deserves approbation … You are engaged in a work of great humanitarian significance. Yours is the type of meaningful program which transmits skills and technical knowledge as an aid to the modernization of communities and to the improvement of living standards. It is thus in consonance with the main currents of our times."
President John F. Kennedy

"…ORT has provided an education for life to Jews and others in vulnerable communities throughout the world. In so doing, it has exemplified one of Judaism's greatest values. We are the people who predicated our very existence as a people on education, on 'teaching... diligently to our children.' … The civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome have long since disappeared. Judaism still lives and flourishes and survives. ORT is testimony to that truth.”
Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

About Us

Photography studio, Sofia, ORT BulgariaBetty Schoenbaum with students who will benefit from her multi-million dollar gift which built a new Science City campus in Kiryat Yam, IsraelORT Global aid program for farmers to learn Sustainability in Farming, ChadORT India Bnei Menashe members visit Israel through the Birthright programSchool children from ORT Bialik, MinskBiotechnology in ORT BrazilProgrammes for the disabled, Kharkov, UkraineKesherNet programme for women to learn technology and computing, St Petersburg, RussiaStudents are able to use the most up-to-date facilities at the newly built Kiryat Yam campus. Photo: Oren CohenKav Or - ORT supporting sick children in hospital with their studies, IsraelOpthalmology, ORT FranceORT started in Tzarist Russia in 1880ORT has a long and varied history

What is ORT?

Welcome to the online home of World ORT, the world's largest Jewish education and vocational training non-governmental organisation. This year, through our network of schools, colleges, training centres and programmes in Israel, Russia, Argentina and many other countries worldwide, we will benefit more than 200,000 people - young and old, Jewish and non-Jewish. With your help, we can continue the ORT tradition of freeing individuals and communities from dependence.

 

Our Mission

  • To work for the advancement of Jewish and other people through training and education;

 

  • To provide communities wherever they are, with the skills and knowledge necessary to cope with the complexities and uncertainties of their environment;

 

  • To foster economic self-sufficiency, mobility and a sense of identity through use of state-of-the-art technology;

 

  • To support non-sectarian economic and social development through International Cooperation programs in under-developed parts of the world, with vocational training and the provision of technical assistance.

 

 

What does ORT stand for?

ORT was founded in Tsarist Russia in 1880. The name 'ORT' was coined from the acronym of the Russian words Obshestvo Remeslenofo zemledelcheskofo Truda, meaning The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labour.

It is an acronym that has stuck through 130 years of education and training, moving from its roots in Russia to become a global organisation, hence the name World ORT. ORT is proud of its history and roots, and that it still carries the moto of "Educating for Life" into today.

 


World ORT Facts and Figures 2010

Our essential brochure detailing World ORT's major campaigns worldwide.

factsnfigures2010_lowres.pdf

World ORT Facts and Figures 2010

World ORT Report 2010

A review of our worldwide activities during 2010.

wo-report2010.pdf

World ORT Report 2010

Further info about World ORT

World ORT publications