Spirit of ORT shines at Argentine graduation day

22.12.05

22 December 2005 More than 600 young men and women have formally graduated from ORTs two high schools in Buenos Aires in ceremonies at the Luna Park Stadium in the Argentine capital. A total of 5,000 people from proud parents and members of the Board of ORT Argentina to representatives of the Jewish community, the local education authority and the Ministry of Education looked on as the graduates received their diplomas in two consecutive ceremonies. The Director of ORT Argentina, Professor Baruj Zaidenknop, addressed the graduates, urging them to take what they had learned both in and out of the classroom to make the world a better place. Human beings possess an interior image of the world and so are able to transform the real world with their intelligence, their feelings and above all with their actions, Professor Zaidenknop said. According to Michelangelo, the sculpture is already in the block of marble it is just a matter of a persons capacity to remove the extraneous material to reveal the art. Drawing on Jewish tradition, Professor Zaidenknop continued: The prophet Elias taught us that fighting injustice is also in our hands. As Rabbi Hillel said, In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be a leader. Happy ORT graduates receive their diplomas The ceremonies also featured the school principals reading from ORT Argentinas Pledge of Ethics, which concludes by urging members of the ORT family to assume the right and the obligation to imagine and to construct a better world for us and for future generations, where ethics, justice, equality and freedom predominate. Chazan Alvaro Navarro leads the singing of Hatikva and the Argentine national anthem World ORTs Representative in Latin America, Isidoro Gorodischer, said the large audiences at the ceremonies reflected the importance of ORTs role in the countrys education system and Jewish community. This huge community support permits ORT to carry out the great and urgent challenge of enlarging the schools capacity to meet the growing demand for quality education, Mr Gorodischer said. ORT Argentina opened its first school in 1941 and is now one of the countrys largest providers of education with more than 7,300 students. Its two high schools and two junior schools in Buenos Aires offer a wide range of subjects including Science, Computing, Electronics, Business Administration, Media Studies and Music Studies. In addition, the two ORT Institutes of Technology grant official diplomas in subjects ranging from Biotechnology, Food Technology and Film and Television Production to Tourism and Fashion Design. World ORT, founded in St Petersburg in 1880, is the worlds largest Jewish educational and vocational training non-government organisation with some 270,000 students both Jewish and non-Jewish in 158 countries.