World ORT Union Records
Collection Number: 7026
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
World ORT Union Records, 1960-1975
Collection Number:
7026
Creator:
World ORT Union
Quantity:
0.8 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and
Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
This collection consists of reports from the World ORT
Union. Seven of them are Annual Reports written for the Executive Council of the
World ORT; two of them are reports covering the events of the ORT
Congress.
Language:
Collection material in English
ORT was founded in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1880 to provide employable skills for
Russia's impoverished Jews. The organization's founding fathers were Nikolai Bakst,
Baron Horace Gunzburg and Samuel Poliakov. They obtained permission to form ORT in
honor of the Tsars 25th anniversary. The name "ORT" comes from the acronym of the
Russian words "Obshestvo Remeslennogo i zemledelcheskogo Truda." This translates to
"The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor."
ORT distributed funds to Jewish schools for handicraft and agricultural training and
provided grants or loans to artisans and farmers. In the early 1900s the
organization began to sponsor cooperative ventures, to support training programs in
Jewish schools and to establish its own vocational schools.
During and after the First World War, ORT's workshops, credit and labour offices
saved thousands from starvation and unemployment. In 1921 the ORT Union (know today
as World ORT) was created to coordinate fundraising efforts and to oversee ORT's
growing activities in Europe and elsewhere. Through the interwar years ORT supported
Jewish farmers with equipment, loans and training while graduates of ORT's technical
schools gained employment as technicians and engineers. In the 1930s ORT courses
helped Jewish refugees fleeing the rise of Hitler to prepare for life in other
countries.
In the Soviet Union, ORT worked with the authorities to establish industries and
supply materials and machinery but was forced to close down its operations in 1938.
The movement of Jewish refugees led to the development of new ORT programs beyond
Europe, mainly in South America. In Europe, during the Holocaust, ORT became a
"Passport to Life." After the war ORT trained tens of thousands of survivors and
displaced persons from Jewish communities throughout Europe.
In 1960 ORT was asked by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to
undertake technical training programs in Africa. Seeing this as an integral part of
its mission, ORT took up the challenge and began a new phase of humanitarian
activities outside the international Jewish community while at the same time
expanding its work with Jewish communities in France, Latin America, North Africa,
the Middle East and India. In the 1990s ORT returned to working in Russia.
World ORT is legally constituted in Switzerland and operates out of offices in
London, England. It has consultative status for information and education purposes
with UNESCO, and observer status at the International Labour Organization.
Names:
Community Welfare Organizations
World ORT Union
World ORT Union -- History.
Subjects:
Agriculture
Occupational training -- Jews
Education
Public welfare
Labor -- Religious aspects -- Judaism.
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a
reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet
and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
World ORT Union Records #7026. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation
and Archives, Cornell University Library.
|
Container
|
Description
|
Date
|
|
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1961 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1962 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1969 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1970 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1972 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 6 | 1974 | |
| Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1975 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 1 | 1960 | |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | 1970 | |