ORT Israel

Ort Israel began functioning in 1948, when Aharon Singalovski, Chairperson of World ORT, came to Israel. With the dramatic increase in Jewish immigration from North Africa, Europe and the Middle East, new challenges in absorption and rehabilitation emerged. Thousands of new immigrants needed to be integrated into the new society, and to this end, jobs and vocational training were needed. Many senior figures in the country supported this idea, such as Zalman Shazar, then the Minister of Education, and later to become President, Zalman Aran, later to become Minister of Education, and Mordechai Bentov, the Minister of Housing. The management of ORT rented an abandoned building in Jaffa and another one on the Street of the Prophets in Jerusalem.

The first ORT school in Israel opened in Jaffa in 1949. Its beginnings were modest, with only short courses for discharged soldiers, in order to make it easier for them to integrate into the country's economy. The school was headed by engineer Zvi Rivlin. Thus ORT Israel was founded, and this was also the beginning of technology education in the State of Israel. The school operated for seven years in extremely crowded conditions. The first courses were in welding, carpentry, sewing, weaving, radio, electricity, and typewriter repair. Hundreds of discharged soldiers and new immigrants passed through the school, studying mainly in evening classes. A new school building was opened in the 1950s in Yad Eliyahu which was named for Aharon Singalovski.

During the 1960s, the number of students doubled. This was also the case in the 1970s. The education authorities in Israel declared technological and vocational education a priority and called for more schools to be built. Between 1960 and 1975, 60 additional schools were added to the network to make a total of 80 schools. Thus, a decade later, the number of ORT students exceeded 70,000. The new schools were opened not just in the big cities, but also on kibbutzim, in development towns and yeshivas. Some were also built in Arab towns.

In 2003, Israel was World ORT's largest sphere of operation, with 90,000 students enrolled in 159 schools, colleges and institutions.[1] In 2006, ORT Israel broke away from World ORT,[2] which continues to work in Israel as Kadima Mada-Educating for Life. ORT Israel now raises funds in the United States through Friends of Israel Sci-Tech Schools.[3] Kadima Mada is investing NIS16 million to upgrade technology studies in 72 Jewish and non-Jewish schools in Israel.[4]

Since the turn of the century, the network has expanded considerably, making its main goal the cultivation of schools that define themselves as providing high-level science and technology education. ORT institutions are spread around the entire country. One in ten post-elementary students attends an ORT Israel school. Every year, some 100,000 students, youth and adults study in its institutions. The network serves the entire population of the country, both geographically and demographically, working in all the various communities: state schools (Jewish and Arab: Muslim, Christian and Druze), state-religious schools (yeshivot and ulpanot). The ORT Israel network has over 600,000 graduates, and employs 8,500 teaching and administrative staff.

Today ORT is the largest non-state network of schools in Israel. Until a few years ago ORT primarily operated trade and vocational schools. Now the focus is on the advancement of science and technology education.

The network runs over 200 institutions, including 6-year comprehensive (middle and high) schools, industrial schools, and colleges for technicians and practical engineers, which train some 30% of the technology HR for Israel's economy. The Ort Israel Research and Development Center was established by Manya and Israel Moshinsky of Mexico [3] in 1972.

The Center was designed to train ORT teachers the work methods and applications of the new technologies used in ORT's more advanced study tracks. The Pedagogical Center became a model for other information centers worldwide. The Center was built on the campus of the ORT Singalovski High School. The R&D Center supervised the writing of technology textbooks for students and teachers which have been translated into several languages. Over the years, there has been a shift from textbooks to the development of online tools and information systems for teaching and learning.

The R&D Center currently has some 100 employees and is responsible for innovative pedagogical development for the entire network. The Center also exports curricula abroad to both Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Every year the ORT R&D Center takes part in international science and technology projects and has a reputation for quality and innovation.

ORT Israel offers 40 different study tracks in science and technology, social sciences and humanities. About 60% of ORT Israel students study in science and technology tracks.

ORT has been the first to launch study tracks in Israel in: biomedical engineering, mechatronics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, environmental studies and electro-optics. Parallel to their high school studies, some 1,200 outstanding ORT students also study n the ORT Academy program for a bachelor's degree at the Technion and Israel's other research universities.

Teaching methods at ORT include a combination of online learning systems that use the internet and social media platforms. Among these, ORT Israel has developed a Learning Management System based on an open source platform, launched a virtual school and supports over 100 websites specially developed and run by the network's teachers and students.

In 1996, World ORT launched the "Science through Technology" in Israeli junior high schools (grade 7–9). In the "Young Investigators" program for seventh graders, the students build LEGO models to explore scientific phenomenon. In "Galileo, Newton and Me" for eighth graders, LEGO is used to study systems. In the "Design your own world" program, ninth graders attempt to solve real-life problems using LEGO bricks and programming.[5]

In 2008, Kadima Mada embarked on a project to build high-tech classrooms, equipping 60 rooms on six campuses with Interactive Whiteboards, wireless Internet and other technological aids.[6]

ORT Bir Hadaj (بئر هداج) High School in the Bedouin dispersion

• Religious sector – 8 institutions in 2015, such as the ORT Tiberias Ulpanit for girls, the ORT Orot Neria Yeshiva in Tiberias for boys.
• Ultra-orthodox sector – 7 institutions in 2015, such as the Kfar Zeitim Youth Village, ORT Zoharim and ORT Derech Hayashar in Afula, which are run in conjunction with the institutions of Rabbi Itzhak David Grossman. These institutions are for boys only.
• Muslim sector – 7 institutions in 2015, such as ORT Hilmi Shafi in Acco, and ORT Sciences & Engineering in Lod.
• Druze sector – 3 institutions in 2015, such as ORT Sajur and ORT Gilboa
• Bedouin sector – 8 institutions in the south in 2016 for the clans of the Abu Basma (أبو بسمة) local council region and one in the north in Wadi Salame (سلامة).
• Christian sector– 2 schools, in Nazareth and Maalot-Tarshiha.

Each year the network continues to expand and take on more schools from these sectors.

• Education in Israel
• Science and technology in Israel

• ORT Israel website
• ORT colleges website