U.S. Gives $100,000 in Machinery and Tools to Ort in Israel

The Agency for International Development announced today that a $100,000 shipment of heavy machine and metal-working tools, all United States Government excess property, was en route to Israel for use by 20,000 students in 30 vocational schools operated by ORT. The U.S.S. Export Agent carrying the shipment left Hoboken, N.J., yesterday.

The shipment was the first under a new AID plan to help private American organizations in their work in underdeveloped countries. Under an agreement signed last May between ORT and AID, which administers the United States foreign aid program, ORT received acquisition rights for $750,000 worth of equipment declared excesses to United States Government needs and available for use in foreign countries under provisions of the United States Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

The AID said ORT schools in Iran, Tunisia and Morocco will get future shipments. The equipment for ORT schools in Israel will arrive November 6. It includes lathes, milling machines, drill presses, precision grinders, gear cutters and accessory machine tools. ORT was the first voluntary agency registered with AID to sign this type of agreement.

(The ORT vocational schools in Iran have been granted a subsidy by the Plan Organization in that country of 2,200,000 rials ($30,000), it was announced in Geneva today by the World ORT Union. The subsidy was given in recognition of the importance of the contribution of the ORT schools to the training of skilled workers necessary to Iran’s development. Terms of the subsidy agreement call for the money to be used for new equipment in the boys’ schools.)