Ort Women Told of Israel’s Needs; Johnson Greets Board Conference

The need to increase all levels of education in Israel, and to intensify Israel’s vocational training to meet economic challenges, was stressed here today by Nachum Shamir, Economic Minister of Israel in the United States, who addressed the 1964 national board conference of the Women’s American ORT. Emphasizing the importance of skilled labor in boosting the nation’s exports, Mr. Shamir said that recent projections call for doubling industrial production and tripling exports during the next five years.

In a message of greeting to the conference, President Lyndon B. Johnson hailed the “humanitarian efforts of the Women’s American ORT in behalf of our fellow men,” which, he said, were an encouragement to peoples the world over. “To those who are being helped to a new life through ORT’s programs of vocational education and training,” the message declared, “your service offers a future of hope and fulfillment. To all who know of ORT’s high purposes, your work is an inspiration, an example of how the conscience and action of dedicated women can prepare the less fortunate for their rightful place in today’s society.”

Other greetings were received by the conference from W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor; and Anthony J. Celebrezze, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., of Atlanta, welcomed the delegates, drawing a parallel between ORT’s vocational educational goals and those of this city’s.

Daniel Mayer, former French Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, and chairman of the executive committee of the World ORT Union in Geneva, told the 500 delegates that “wherever ORT works, the individuals we train become threads of strength in the fabric of the nation.”