On campuses in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, students from 45 countries--speaking more than 25 different languages--are studying English as a Second Language (ESL) and selecting from a variety of subjects that will prepare them to obtain employment upon graduation. These courses, including computer technology, computerized accounting, business management, electronics technology and office technology, and computer aided design and drafting (CADD), are often the vehicle that begin the journey to an American life.

Some 40,000 students have been trained by the network of U.S. schools called ORT Operations USA, which comprises three post-secondary technical institutes: Bramson ORT College in Forest Hills, N.Y., the Los Angeles ORT Technical Institute (LAOTI) and Zarem/Golde ORT Technical Institute in Chicago.

Bramson ORT College was established in 1977 as the Bramson ORT Division of Technology. The name was changed in 1999 after Bramson became accredited as a two-year college. In addition to its main Forest Hills campus, Bramson opened an annex in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a community with a sizeable population of immigrants from the CIS, in 2000. LAOTI was founded in 1985 and Zarem/Golde opened in 1991 as a branch campus of the Los Angeles school. Today, LAOTI consists of its main campus, a branch campus in Sherman Oaks, California, and the Zarem/Golde campus in Chicago.

This tradition of training immigrants for the workforce extends well beyond the past quarter of a century. The forerunner of today's thriving network began in the early 1940s with the Bramson ORT Training Center in New York, established to serve refugees fleeing Nazi terror.

In addition to assisting recent immigrants, a priority of ORT Operations USA is outreach and service to local Jewish communities. Bramson ORT College has negotiated with Jewish organizations to provide technology training and job placement to various communities. Zarem/Golde runs a Sunday school for Russian Jewish children, which has become a cultural center for the Russian Jewish community. LAOTI offers computer courses for teachers at Los Angeles Jewish schools. And in response to the needs of male Orthodox students ages 16 and older, Jewish Education Trade School (JETS) opened at LAOTI in 2002. The boys study Judaic subjects in the morning, following up with technical classes at LAOTI in the afternoon. Upon completing the program, the JETS students receive a LAOTI certificate.

ORT Resource Centers/ORT Technology Centers
How can day school and Hebrew school teachers learn to merge the latest technology with a curriculum familiar to generations of students? How can they make the classroom experience more dynamic for students whose computer expertise is far superior to their own? The innovative ORT Resource Center, that's how. The center, located at Bramson ORT College, offers on-site teacher training, technical support, educational technology workshops and seminars, software and curricular reviews, and Jewish educational consulting to Jewish day schools and congregational schools nationwide. Resource/Technology Centers operate in Atlanta, Cleveland and Miami.

The newest center, in the Detroit area, is slated to open at the end of 2003. The David B. Hermelin ORT Resource Center is a collaborative venture of Women's American ORT and American ORT and ORT Operations USA, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Housed in the newly renovated D. Dan and Betty Kahn Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, the Hermelin ORT Center will include the CyberpORT CafŽ, the ORTnet Learning Lab and the ORT M2 Studio for state-of-the-art multimedia projects.

The Hermelin ORT Center will serve as a technology resource for Jewish educators. School groups and families will have the opportunity to explore Jewish history and culture in an exciting interactive forum. And ORT's emphasis on marketable skills will manifest itself in the form of computer-based job skills classes for at-risk members of the community at large. The center is adjacent to the new Shalom Street, the Address for Jewish Discovery, which is principally funded by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Family Foundation and the Ford Motor Company Foundation.

Also a partnership between WAO and AO, the Atlanta ORT Computer Technology Resource Center opened in 2000 at the Zaban-Blank building of the Marcus Jewish Community Center. Joining with AO and the Davis Academy, WAO is participating in an exciting program to bring Argentine, Russian and Israeli ORT students to Atlanta for a period of study in local day schools and exposure to a thriving American Jewish Community.

The Cleveland ORT Computer Technology Center, in collaboration with the Jewish Educational Center of Cleveland, currently provides technical support to five day schools, a Jewish college and the Jewish Educational Center. The ORT Computer Technology Center has played a key role in bringing the city's day schools up to the technical standards of their secular counterparts.

In North Miami Beach, the Miami ORT Computer Technology Center serves more than 1,500 students and 200 faculty members at two Hillel day schools. Updated administrative software allows Hillel staff to streamline such routine tasks as grading, attendance and alumni management.