Ort Announces $7,702,700 Budget; Will Get $1,950,000 from J.D.C.

A budget of $7,702,700 for the maintenance of over 600 trade and vocational ORT schools in 19 countries, which will provide instruction to 40,000 persons in 1963 was announced here tonight at the 41st national conference of the American ORT Federation. The budget was announced by Dr. William Haber, president of the organization.

The conference ratified an agreement with the Joint Distribution Committee which will provide $1,950,000 for ORT activities overseas in 1963. Over $1,000,000 is anticipated from membership income of Women’s American ORT and other affiliated groups. The balance of ORT financial needs overseas are expected to be met by ORT organizations in other countries and by contributions from governments and communities in which the schools are located.

United States Assistant Secretary of State G. Mennen Williams, was the principal speaker at the dinner session of the conference. He emphasized the need for a massive aid program to the Congo. President Kennedy, in a message to the more than 500 delegates representing 100,000 members throughout the country, congratulated the ORT “efforts on behalf of the people of the 19 countries in which your vocational programs have proved so effective.”

“Through your educational programs,” the President said, “you have provided many thousands with the technical and industrial skills, which enable them to become productive members of their communities and to achieve a significant measure of self-respect and well-being. Your new programs in West Africa, which have been developed in cooperation with the Agency for International Development, deserve special commendation.”

WILL GIVE PRIORITY TO PLANS FOR AIDING ALGERIAN JEWS

The ORT board of directors, in an earlier afternoon session, approved projects for 1963 that would assign top priority in the coming year to plans in aid of the 100,000 Algerian Jewish refugees who arrived in France recently and to the extensive program of youth training in Israel.

With respect to France, the board noted the recent opening of a large new ORT training center for North African refugees in Marseilles, constructed with the financial help of the Martha S. Stern Trust of Cincinnati, the enrollment of 1,000 additional students in existing ORT schools in Paris and other cities, formation of 16 special courses for adult refugees and successful completion of negotiations with the French government under terms of which ORT will shortly establish a new ORT vocational school in Toulouse.

In Israel, reports submitted indicated that ORT schools and technical institutes had enrolled over 15,000 persons in 1962 and expected to enroll over 17,000 this year. It was noted that new trade high schools were established in immigrant settlements and industrial training was extended to many Yeshivas or religious schools. The board heard from Mrs. Helen Rosenberg, president of Women’s American ORT, that her group of 65,000 women would in the next few years erect four entirely new centers for apprentice training in Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Samuel H. Daroff of Philadelphia, national honorary chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, represented his organization in ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of the founding of UJA. He was presented with a scroll of honor which noted the UJA’s “historic effort of saving lives, rescue and reconstruction of our people,” by Adolph Held, vice-president of the American ORT Federation.