ORT students attend March of the Living 2006

23.03.06

22 March 2006 More than 500 ORT students at March of the Living Students from ORT schools in Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Italy and France will gather together for a special ceremony at the start of the March of the Living , the annual Yom Hashoah commemoration by Jewish teenagers in Poland. The group, which totals more than 500 people, includes more than 140 from the former Soviet Union and more than 300 from Israel. They will lead the march of thousands of people from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the Holocausts largest concentration camp complex. Some will then go to Israel to observe Yom HaZikaron (Israels Memorial Day) and Yom Haatzmaut (Israel Independence Day). This is the second year running that ORT students have marched together as a group. Each student will be presented with an ORT passport. These multilingual booklets outline ORTs operations during the Nazi tyranny, highlighting how a place in one of ORTs ghetto workshops was seen as a passport to life. It is very satisfying to see so many ORT students not only participating in this extraordinarily important event but doing so together as proud members of the ORT family, World ORT Director General Robert Singer said. I would encourage our friends and colleagues in other countries to join us if not this year then in the future. Mr Singer will address the students during a special 45-minute ceremony just before the march commences on April 25. The ceremony, outside the gates of Auschwitz, will also feature brief contributions from four students one each to represent the former Soviet Union, France, Italy and Israel and the recitation of psalms. ORT students on last years March of the Living.. Each of the groups will stay in Poland for several days, touring sites of Jewish historical significance including the Warsaw Ghetto, the Majdanek death camp, Oscar Schindlers factory and other sites in Krakow, Yeshiva Chochmai Lublin, and the Tarnow Ghetto. World ORTs Head of Education and Technology, Dr Gaby Meyassed, said the March of the Living was a fundamental part of contemporary Jewish education. Its a very important event, said Dr Meyassed. Every Jewish student should participate in this at least once because it not only teaches them critical points about modern Jewish history but provides an opportunity for them to engage with Jews from a variety of countries and cultures and share a strengthened bond as a result. This is also true within the ORT context because it allows our students to supplement their education with a deeper appreciation of the organisation of which they are so important a part. Any friends or supporters of ORT who would like to join the April 25 event may contact Shira Copans at World ORT at [email protected] .