American Ort Approves $5,800,000 Budget for Work in 20 Countries

A budget of $5,800,000 for ORT programs in 20 countries overseas in 1959 was approved here today at an all-day meeting of the board of directors of the American ORT Federation.

Underlining the importance of ORT programs to the communities in which it functions is the fact that half of the budget will be provided by governments and host communities. Under an agreement with the Joint Distribution Committee, ORT will also receive $1,600,000 from JDC funds.

Dr. William Haber, president of the American ORT, said that the greatest expansion in ORT programs this year will come in its trade schools in Israel and vocational programs for 18,000 Jews repatriated from the USSR to Poland.

U.S. Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, a featured speaker at the conference, lashed out at the failure in this country to grant equal access to employment opportunities and education regardless of “race or color or church.” He pointed out that “personal rights in America are the most precious thing we have, and because we insist on them before the world, we are judged by the world on how we perform regarding them.” He lauded ORT activities abroad because “organizations like this one, going about their business of creating opportunity and building lives, present a truer image of America.”

Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive vice chairman, told the conference that “one of the great lessons of our rescue work in the postwar years” was that refugees and displaced persons require vocational training to prepare them for resettlement and rehabilitation. Reporting on activities in behalf of Polish Jews from the Soviet Union, Mr. Leavitt noted that the ORT workshops “keep them occupied and teach them trades without which they could not hope to make a living today and which contain the seed of hope for how they will remake their lives tomorrow.”