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May 7, 2004/Iyar 16 5764, Vol. 56, No. 33
ORT reaches out to America
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - From a podium in front of hundreds of people, Svetlana Dzanashvili recounts her personal journey toward rehabilitation.
As a second-semester high school senior, the young Russian American Jew stopped attending classes and started hanging out with the wrong crowd. She failed to graduate.
But the New York-based Bramson ORT College gave her "a second chance." First, she earned her G.E.D., and then she got a college degree, which she says enabled her to get "back on track."
Dzanashvili's is one of many stories told by former and current students at a gathering early this week of the World Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, better known as World ORT.
And it's a message that the London-based group, celebrating 125 years, wants to get out to raise its profile - and fund-raising potential - among today's American Jews.
The organization's vast network of Jewish schools and colleges, along with nonsectarian humanitarian programs, largely takes place beyond America's shores.
With a long history, from educating Russian Jews at the turn of the century to training Jews in postwar displaced persons camps, ORT now operates in more than 100 countries, primarily Israel, Argentina and the former Soviet Union.
Underscoring its drive for the attention of American Jews, World ORT held its General Assembly in the United States for the first time.
The May 1-3 conference was held in New York "to make a statement to the American Jewish community," said Robert Singer, the group's director-general.
Though the organization was well known among earlier generations of American Jews, Singer said that today "the American Jewish community has a hidden asset that they don't know about."
With a network of 272,000 students and a staff of 16,000, ORT bills itself as the largest Jewish educational organi-zation in the world, servicing students mostly from low- to middle-income backgrounds who, in most countries, pay nothing or next to it for an ORT education.
Its focus is on science and technology, preparing students to join the workforce.
In addition, its International Cooperation project, which provides nonsectarian pro-grams to Third World and war-torn areas, earns good grades around the world.
With 156 schools in Israel alone, one in every eight Israeli students attends an ORT school, officials say. More than 40 percent of Israel's high-tech work force was trained at an ORT Israel school, they added.
More than 80 percent, or more than 7,100, of Jewish children in Argentina attend ORT schools. An emergency campaign that raised about $3.75 million kept the program afloat during the country's economic crisis.
With a program entitled "Regeneration 2000," ORT returned to its roots, the former Soviet Union, to create 11 schools for some 27,000 students, including adults in after-school computer training programs.
Citing the many sequels to the hit film "Rocky," Jewish philanthropist Milton Gralla this week announced the launch of Women American ORT's "Regeneration 2004" to plan an additional four schools.
"When you have a hit, you don't put it to sleep. You revitalize it," Gralla said.
World ORT has continued its American presence through a handful of colleges and two affiliate organ-izations, American ORT and Women's American ORT.
Women's American ORT, through the efforts of its members and volunteers, raises money for the ORT program, according to the organization's Web site. The funds raised by the 500 local chapters - more than 50,000 members nationwide - help the schools remain open and keep them current with the most state-of-the-art tech-nological equipment.
In the Valley, there are three chapters of Women's American ORT. For contact information, visit www.jewishaz.com.
Managing Editor Leisah Namm contributed to this article.
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