Dear ORT Friends and Leaders,
Not long ago, phone holsters were everywhere. And they were cool.* At least mine was. Lawyers, executives, commuters, parents – everyone seemed to have a cellphone clipped to their belt. I certainly did. In fact, I loved the whole setup: my phone was secure, easy to find, and always within reach. It felt practical, efficient, even a little sophisticated.
And then, almost overnight, phone holsters disappeared. Something that seemed entirely normal and genuinely useful suddenly became uncool.
I’m fascinated by how quickly fashions change. Not only what we wear, but how we think, what we admire, and what society chooses to celebrate. Things that seem self-evidently important one year are dismissed the next. Trends move with extraordinary speed.
Jewish tradition has witnessed thousands of years of changing fashions, technologies, political systems, and cultural norms. But our sages consistently distinguished between what’s popular and what’s enduring. In Pirkei Avot, we learn that the world stands on three things: Torah, service, and acts of kindness.
These values weren’t dependent on the trends of their time, and they aren’t dependent on the trends of ours. They endure because they speak to something fundamental about what it means to build a meaningful life and a healthy society.
In a culture that often celebrates independence above all else, Jewish thought reminds us that we belong to one another. In a world that prizes efficiency, community asks us to invest time in people. In an age where we can communicate instantly across continents, genuine human connection remains as precious and as necessary as ever.
At ORT, we see this every day.
The technologies we teach today would have been unimaginable a generation ago. The careers our students are preparing for may look very different a decade from now. The tools change constantly. But the purpose doesn’t.
We help people build lives of dignity and opportunity. We strengthen communities. We create pathways for individuals to contribute their talents to something larger than themselves.
At ORT, we teach the skills of tomorrow, but we do so in service of values that are timeless.
I think that’s one of the great lessons of Jewish history. It’s not that we endure because we perfectly predict the next trend. It’s more that we endure because we carry forward certain truths that remain relevant in every generation.
So yes, phone holsters may have gone out of style. But learning never does. Community never does. Responsibility for one another never does. I’m grateful for that.
Shabbat shalom,
Dov
Dov Ben-Shimon
Chief Executive Officer, World ORT
*It’s entirely possible that your definition of cool may be different to mine, I know.