"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

Asia & the Pacific

Kindergarten class, ORT IndiaStudents from ORT IndiaBirthright program - students from ORT India visit IsraelKindergarten art class, ORT IndiaORT training program in Mumbai for the Bnei Menashe - one of the lost tribes, ORT IndiaAn art program in Sri Lanka - part of the Tsunami relief projectWorld ORT representative Celeste Angus is welcomed by staff and students in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, IndiaA computer center supplied by ORT/JDC in a school in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

EDUCATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY IN INDIA


ORT India is creating an educational revolution on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands affected by the tsunami in the Bay of Bengal. It installed computers, presentation equipment and inaugurated IT laboratories in five high schools, with accompanying advanced multimedia technology. This has had significant impact on the pupil's critical thinking and scientific inquiry.

As a direct result of this program, three schools have added computer science studies to their 10th – 12th grade curriculums. The success of the laboratories has generated widespread appeal from the Directorate of Education and other schools and has become a model for the future education of the Islands. 

In Mumbai, ORT has initiated a new early childhood education program for mothers and toddlers. This program provides babies from seven months and up with a stimulating learning environment, and educates mothers on their child's holistic development. The program includes the mainstreaming of six special needs children.

In 2010, 30 Jewish youth participated in the Birthright-Israel program, returning with a closer connection to Israel and a deeper understanding of their heritage. To date 248 Indian youth have participated in this powerful program.

In the far north-east of the country, World ORT is providing new opportunities for the remote Beni Menashe community. Here, computer classes are provided that will enable community members to take advantage of many different employment opportunities either locally or further afield, that were previously denied to them through their lack of familiarity with up-to-date technologies.

ORT India is training a new generation of students with advanced tech skills to take their place in the workforce.