World ORT at the Council of Europe

13 December 2006 World ORT at the Council of Europe Representatives of both governments and non-government organisations (NGOs) were among those who heard World ORT Director General Robert Singer give a presentation on the role of NGOs at the Forum for the Future of Democracy in Strasbourg. World ORT was invited to address the Forum by the organisers at the INGO Conference of the Council of Europe and the Council’s Directorate General of Political Affairs. The two-day Forum focused on accountability of NGOs as advocacy groups, their accountability as service providers and their role in ensuring checks and balances in civil society. Mr Singer’s presentation took in the history of ORT as an international education and vocational training provider as well as examining the breadth of ORT’s current work and values. “With the increasing delegation of government activities to NGOs, the issue of accountability is of growing importance,” Mr Singer said. “In our organisation we believe that there is no substitute for professionalism in every aspect of the work that we do.” The Forum was impressed by the scope of ORT’s work, from non-sectarian training projects in developing countries to educational programmes and schools in the emerging democracies of eastern Europe and professional undertakings such as the on-going evaluation of modernisation efforts in Russia’s education system. Robert Singer, Maud de Boer Buquicchio and Jean-Hugues Leopold-Metzger. World ORT’s expertise in tolerance education – including web-based projects such as Learning about the Holocaust through Art and Learning about the Holocaust through Music – was brought up in a meeting Mr Singer had with the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Maud de Boer Buquicchio. “We discussed ORT’s commitment to the Council of Europe and possible areas for future cooperation,” Mr Singer said. In particular, Mrs de Boer Buquicchio said she would welcome a contribution from ORT to the Council’s “All Different-All Equal” youth campaign, to its forthcoming policy paper on intercultural dialogue, its teaching programme “Teaching Remembrance” and annual Holocaust Day commemorations, and its programme of Education for Democratic Citizenship. World ORT’s Representative at the Council of Europe, Jean-Hugues Leopold-Metzger, said Mr Singer’s visit was a stride forward in developing the links he has forged between the two organisations over recent years. “Mr Singer’s invitation to address the Forum resulted largely from ORT’s excellent work through its International Cooperation section, by which I mean our work for non-Jewish people around the world,” Mr Leopold-Metzger said. “His meeting with Mrs de Boer Buquicchio underlined the high regard with which ORT is viewed at the Council of Europe and the potential that exists for a very productive partnership between the organisations.” Gilbert Roos, the consular representative of the Israeli parliament at the Council of Europe, said Mr Singer’s presentation impressed delegates at the Forum, not least for demonstrating how a major Jewish organisation was helping people from all ethno-religious backgrounds. “ORT’s openness serves to break some stereotypes about Jewish philanthropy that are not uncommon in Europe today,” Mr Roos said. The Council of Europe groups together 46 countries, including 21 from Central and Eastern Europe; its governmental, parliamentary, regional and other representatives aim to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law as well as to standardise member countries’ social and legal practices. Robert Singer with (on his left) Jean-Hugues Leopold-Metzger and ORT Strasbourg students and staff, including Principal Claude Sabbah (far right). While in Strasbourg, Mr Singer visited the ORT college there. He met a group of ORT Strasbourg’s students, including 22 members of Morocco’s Jewish community who stay at the college’s kosher student accommodation. The Moroccans, whose homes are in Casablanca, are represented on ORT Strasbourg’s optician’s course and its international trade programme. During his tour of the college, and through his meetings with students, staff and lay leaders, Mr Singer was able to see at first hand the institution’s achievements, including the way it has implemented the new professional degree in optical studies in partnership with the University of Strasbourg. “I was very impressed, it’s a truly international institution,” Mr Singer said. “The buildings, students and staff are of the highest calibre and it’s very well equipped. It is a pleasure to see ORT’s work at its finest.” World ORT, founded in 1880, is the world’s largest Jewish education and vocational training non-government organisation with some 200,000 beneficiaries – Jewish and non-Jewish – in 58 countries. Article date: 20061219

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