Dear ORT Friends and Leaders,
This week in Sofia, Bulgaria, I got to see something remarkable: the opening of our ninth World ORT Digital Skills Academy (DSA), a place where young people from across the world gain the skills, confidence, and connections to shape their futures and strengthen their communities.
In a city so deeply rooted in history, it’s a powerful experience to see a program so firmly focused on the future. The DSA opens doors for students from more than a dozen countries and helps to prepare the next generation of Jewish leaders, innovators, and changemakers.
But what moved me most had nothing to do with the technology. It was the students.
Young people from more than a dozen countries, speaking different languages and carrying different stories, quickly found common ground over breakfast, in the classroom, and in the spaces between. I watched them lean over screens and equipment together, compare notes, laugh at shared mistakes, and help one another through challenges with patience and genuine warmth. By the second day, they weren’t strangers from different corners of the world. They were teammates, companions, and, I believe, friends for life. You could see it, sense it, hear it.
Watching them, I was reminded that while technology may be the subject they came to study, human connection is the lesson they’ll carry home.
None of this happens by accident.
I’m leaving Sofia with profound gratitude for our colleagues at ORT Bulgaria, whose professionalism, warmth, and dedication made every detail seem effortless, especially to the wonderful Dr. Plamen Petrov, ORT Bulgaria Director, and Victor Toledo, ORT Bulgaria Chair. My thanks also go to the outstanding international ORT team that worked alongside them: Interim Education Director Gaynor Collins, Chief Program Officer Vladimir Dribinskiy, and International Relations Manager Monique Zahavi. Their commitment reflects the very best of ORT. Together with our local and international partners, they’re creating an experience that’s both inspiring and deeply meaningful.
Every successful ORT program is built on partnerships: educators, staff, volunteers, community leaders, donors, friends. Each contributes a piece of something much larger than themselves.
When the students arrive, they bring the energy, the curiosity, the optimism, and the willingness to imagine a future bigger than the one they inherited. They arrive with questions, with ideas, with hopes they may not yet know how to name. And through experiences like this one, they begin to see what’s possible, for themselves, for their communities, and for the Jewish People.
I can’t help but wonder what lies ahead for these young people. Somewhere among them is tomorrow’s entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, educator, or communal leader. Some will launch companies. Others will discover breakthroughs. All are positioned to become extraordinary adults who make their communities stronger and more resilient. And each knows now what it means to be part of a global Jewish family.
In a world that too often emphasizes what divides us, these Jewish teenagers unify us. They come from around the world, learning together, creating together, and discovering how much they have in common.
That’s the power of ORT.
We teach digital skills, but we also build confidence. We prepare students for careers, but we also prepare them for citizenship. We invest in education, but what we’re really investing in is hope, and our global Jewish future.
Thank you for making moments like these possible.
This week in Sofia, the future felt very bright indeed.
With deep thanks – Blagodarya!
Shabbat shalom,
Dov
Dov Ben-Shimon
Chief Executive Officer, World ORT