Introduction to World ORT
World ORT is one of the largest non-governmental education and training organisations in the
world with activities in more than 100 countries past and present with current operations in
Israel, the CIS, the Baltic States, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North
America, Africa and Asia. It is a not-for-profit organisation that meets the educational, and
manpower training needs of contemporary society with more than 3,000,000 graduates
worldwide since its inception. It maintains a non-sectarian, non-political position in its
education and training provision.
ORT was founded in St Petersburg in Tsarist Russia in 1880 to provide employable skills for Russia’s impoverished
Jewish people. The letters O-R-T form the Russian acronym for “Obshestvo Remeslennogo i zemledelcheskogo Truda sre-
di evreev v Rossii”, originally meaning The Society for Trades and Agriculture among the Jews in Russia. This reflects the
conditions that prevailed when ORT was conceived, when the acquisition of agricultural and manual skills were the key to
employment.
Since that time, the skills taught by ORT have evolved in step with technology. Today, in place of manual skills and trades,
ORT teaches its students about computers, telecommunications and other modern technologies. ORT builds schools,
develops curricula, sets up laboratories, develops high-tech educational systems, produces courseware and other teaching
aids and publications. It conducts its own educational research and acts as consultant to many other institutions, including
government bodies. ORT cooperates with industry and is supported by an international membership in excess of a quarter
of a million people.
The aim of World ORT’s educational programmes, throughout the world, is to give its students the best possible
preparation for their future. This preparation includes education to help them become citizens who will make a positive
contribution to their society, focused training to enable them to undertake worthwhile and fulfilling careers, and – for its
Jewish students – the knowledge that will give them an understanding and appreciation of their heritage.