World ORT

World ORT (Russian: Общество Ремесленного Труда, Obchestvo Remeslenogo Truda, "Association for the Promotion of Skilled Trades") is a non-profit global Jewish organization that promotes education and training in communities worldwide. Its activities throughout its history have spanned more than 100 countries and five continents.It was founded in 1880 in St. Petersburg to provide professional and vocational training for young Jews.

World ORT is a federation of autonomous ORT national organisations. In 2005 ORT's global budget exceeded US$250 million annually. ORT's current operations are in Israel, the former Soviet Union (including the Baltic States), Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. ORT also runs International Cooperation programs and supports non-sectarian economic and social development in underdeveloped parts of the world, with vocational training and the provision of technical assistance.

In 2003 Israel was the area of ORT's largest operation, with 90,000 students educated or trained at ORT’s 159 schools, colleges and institutions, educating 25% of Israel’s hi-tech workforce. However in 2006 ORT Israel withdrew from World ORT. World ORT continues to work in Israel under the name of Kadima Mada-Educating for Life, working with the Israeli Ministry of Education, other Israeli ministries, regional councils and hospitals providing increased resources and improved facilities and schools equipment. World ORT raises funds through its membership organisations in different countries and through the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).

World ORT is legally constituted in Switzerland, but operates from offices in London, England. It has consultative status for information and education purposes with UNESCO, and observer status at the International Labour Organization

ORT is a founding member of ICVA (International Council of Voluntary Agencies).

The second partition of Poland in 1793 had resulted in a sharp increase in the number of Jews in Russia, so that in 1794 Empress Catherine the Great decreed that the majority of them would henceforth be restricted to living and working in the Pale of Settlement. The Jews were not allowed to leave the Pale or own land outside it. They were removed from their homes and villages and once resettled, barred from all but a handful of professions. The crowded conditions and legal barriers to self-sufficiency led to deepening poverty for the Pale's four million inhabitants. After the reforms of Tsar Alexander II in the 1860s, the situation improved for some Jews but those in the Pale remained trapped by economic hardship and dismal conditions. In 1880, Samuel Polyakov, Horace de Gunzburg and Nikolai Bakst petitioned Tsar Alexander II for permission to start an assistance fund which would improve the lives of the millions of Russian Jews then living in poverty. The fund would provide education and training in practical occupations like handicrafts and agricultural skills and would help people to help themselves.

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