ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training), for more than 100 years the vocational and technical education program of the Jewish people, will make a precedent-setting entrance into the Jewish day school system of the United States by participating in the new Jewish High School of south Florida that will open its doors to students in September, 1981.
This was announced jointly by Beverly Minkoff, national president of Women’s American ORT, and Sidney Leiwant, president of the American ORT Federation, whose respective organizations will co-sponsor ORT’s new venture.
Mrs. Minkoff said that the new high school, to be located in North Miami Beach, “will draw both financial support and student body from the southern Florida counties of Broward and Dade.” It was the result of planning, she said, “by the Central Agency for Jewish Education in the area.” She stated that the school, “a joint project undertaken by the Community Federations involved and ORT,” would seek to “pursue excellence in Jewish and academic studies as well as to provide science-based technological education.”
Leiwant observed that ORT, in addition to its full-fledged country networks around the world, “has been involved in Jewish day school education for some time.” He cited Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Bolivia and Ireland as “countries of such involvement” and pointed out that in Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru, “ORT is a major partner in operating the local day schools, each of which has a student body of more than 1,000 and spans the gamut from the elementary grades through high school.”
The entry of ORT into the Jewish day school system of the United States, he said, “reflects a World ORT perspective of increasing participation on the part of ORT in Jewish day school movements as still another means of contributing to Jewish life.”
Mrs. Minkoff stated that ORT would “be involved in the new school’s division of science and technology and serve as a major educational resource through the employment of its educational and pedagogical expertise. Special ORT seminars, lectures, projects and student exchanges will be arranged and ORT will use its know-how to integrate modern technology into the teaching and learning aspects of the entire school.”
Mrs. Minkoff said that some “eighty students, boys and girls of all ideologies in Judaism, are expected to enroll when the school opens. Within three years, she observed, “the school’s enrollment is expected to reach over 250.”
Leiwant stated that Dan Sharon, who heads the World ORT Union’s technical department, has been a consultant in planning and setting up the new school’s curriculum. Rabbi Louis Herring will serve as the institution’s principal; Richard Levy, of Miami, is president of the school board. Instrumental in the various stages of the project’s materialization within ORT was Ruth Eisenberg, Bramson ORT Technical Institute, and American Presence Chairman of Women’s American ORT.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
