- Russia
Traditional tunes harmonize with latest technology
Young Jewish musicians in Ekaterinburg, Russia, will have the opportunity to learn about their heritage at the new Jewish Music Resource Center housed in the Ekaterinburg Conservatoire, where 5,000 students study all forms of music. Students at the resource center will use information technology for composing, and collecting Jewish and Israeli music and digitally transferring it to a computer database. The facilities are open to students' families and local community members after school hours.
The city's year-old ORT Vocational Training Center, a joint venture with the Jewish Agency, offers courses to potential olim (emigres) to Israel. Making aliyah has become desirable among Ekaterinburg's 20,000 Jews.
- Britain
Renewed presence in Britain
For the first time since the late 1940s when ORT was assisting war refugees, there will be an ORT training institution in Britain. A technology center will be established in the King Solomon High School in northeast London. The center will provide students with the facilities to acquire technical skills in information technology that wouldn't be available to them through a standard academic curriculum. After school, the center will serve as a cybercafé for the general Web-surfing public.
Tzedakah starts at an early age
With a puska (charity box) and magnet depicting the Jewish festivals, 1,500 students at Jewish schools are participating in a fund-raising initiative for the ORT school in Kazan, Russia.
- France
Celebrating its 80th anniversary, ORT France, with seven schools and centers in Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse and Marseilles, is the largest network of schools and colleges in Western Europe. A two-year work-study program for post-graduate students was introduced in Marseilles, Lyon and Montreuil. Students work three days a week and attend classes the other two days. The school in Paris has launched computer classes specifically geared to the needs of companies wanting to retrain and upgrade new employees.
- Italy
A new computer lab will be established in the Jewish school in Milan, serving 550 students and a local community of 7,000. And in Rome, an ORT Technology Center will be housed in the new Jewish secondary school currently under construction and scheduled to open next fall.
- Spain
ORT-installed multimedia workstations at the Estella Toledano School in Madrid and the Colegio Sefardi in Barcelona link students to ORTnet, and Jewish schools and databases worldwide. The curriculum includes science, math, information technology, Judaic studies and Hebrew. Adult courses are offered in computer literacy, word processing, spreadsheets and computer-aided design.
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