ORT UK raises funds through communal events to support World ORT in its mission to make an Impact Through Education.
ORT UK also runs local programs, including the ORT JUMP Mentoring Program and the ORT JUMP Employability Programs, equipping young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue their career goals.
The ORT JUMP Mentoring Program was created in 2009 and has matched thousands of high school students with mentors across a vast array of professions. Mentors help their mentees to explore their field of work, obtain essential workplace skills, and gain the confidence to pursue a career in their chosen industry.
ORT UK was founded in 1921 as British ORT, to fundraise for the World ORT Union’s international projects and teach skilled trades to Jewish communities trapped in poverty.
In 1939, it facilitated the rescue of more than 100 students and staff from the ORT school in Nazi-occupied Berlin, offering them a new home and creating an ORT school in the UK, just days before war broke out.
Post-war, British ORT provided camp survivors with a range of vocational training from nautical skills to dressmaking. It also established a training farm for those intending to move to Israel.
Mexico
Colegio Olamí ORT was founded in 2022 from the merger of two leading schools within Mexico’s Jewish educational network: Colegio CIM-ORT and Colegio Hebreo Sefaradí, together contributing more than 180 years of educational excellence.
Costa Rica
More than 60 years ago, the Instituto Dr. Jaim Weizman was established in Costa Rica’s capital, San José. The school joined the ORT network in 2022 as an affiliate school.
Bulgaria
ORT No. 134 “Dimcho Debelianov” Jewish school is the result of a successful collaboration between ORT, the Bulgarian authorities and The Ronald S Lauder Foundation (from 2003 to 2019).