News Brief

The Russian Ort will no longer carry the name Ort, according to a decision at a plenary meeting of leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian and White Russian Ort organizations.

The meeting decided, not only to change the name, but to reorganize the work entirely, limiting itself to training and engaging Jewish youth in Soviet factories. The new name of the organization has not yet been announced.

It was stated the reorganized Ort will give up the settling of Jews on the land and the assisting of Jewish artisans, leaving these two activities to the Ort Associations of countries abroad, which operate in Russia as foreign organizations, under I. Zegelnitzky.

The change of name will not affect the future relations between the European and American Ort, working in Russia, and the renamed organization, nor the general work of the Ort Asso-

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ciation here, which the government considers extremely desirable. Providing of machines for the declassed by relatives abroad, through the Ort, and other activities will therefore continue as normally.

The Ort Association is assigning, for the coming fiscal year, 125,000 roubles to the renamed organization as a subsidy for industrial and research work in conjunction with the Ort Association.

At the plenary meeting, a demand was presented that the reorganized Ort include in its program judicial protection for the “declassed” and artisans. This proposal was not accepted.

The decisions of the conference do not essentially change the situation. The Russian Ort was not a part of the European or American Ort, nor subject to their administrations. It was an autonomous body. The European and American Ort operated in Russia through their own representatives and by arrangement with the Russian Ort.

The decision of the conference creates a more definite division of the work. However, collaboration and financial support will continue to be furnished by the European and American Ort to the Russian Ort.