"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

Eastern Europe

Photography, Dimcho Debeljanov Lauder-ORT Jewish School in Sofia, BulgariaComputer Studies, Dimcho Debeljanov Lauder-ORT Jewish School in Sofia, BulgariaScience lesson, Dimcho Debeljanov Lauder-ORT Jewish School in Sofia, BulgariaLanguage Laboratory, Lauder Schools of Prague, Czech RepublicA typical classroom equipped with interactive whiteboard technology, Dimcho Debeljanov Lauder-ORT Jewish School in Sofia, BulgariaHebrew lesson, Dimcho Debeljanov Lauder-ORT Jewish School in Sofia, Bulgaria

ORT in Eastern Europe

 

A QUALITATIVE EDGE IN BULGARIA

A new state-of-the art multimedia center has put the Lauder-ORT Dimcho Debeljanov Jewish School in Sofia at the forefront of digital technology education in Bulgaria.

The new facility boasts sophisticated photography, audio, radio, television and video studios which open a new world of digital creativity for students and teachers. This includes the production of radio and television programs in English and Hebrew, videoconferencing and live distance-learning. The Lauder-ORT school is the first school in Bulgaria to incorporate these cutting-edge technologies.

In another exciting development, a new Holocaust Education Center will soon be established in partnership with the Claims Conference.

 

Interdisciplinary Technology in the Czech Republic

ORT's two new interdisciplinary technology laboratories are propelling Lauder Schools of Prague forward. The mobile laboratories create a more holistic learning environment as they incorporate interactive lessons and e-learning that can be used to teach a broad range of subjects.  The Geographic Information Software (GIS) Laboratory gives students the ability to analyze spatial information, edit maps and geographical data and create virtual geographic and travel programs. The language laboratory incorporates the Tal Am program for Hebrew teaching, and includes on-line books, tapes and interactive classroom posters. 

 

Jewish Empowerment in Poland

In Warsaw, World ORT has a continuing relationship with The Lauder-Morasha School founded by The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. It is here that some 200 children, ages six to thirteen, begin their lifelong connection to Judaism.