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ORT was founded in St Petersburg, Tsarist Russia, in 1880 to provide employable skills for Russia’s impoverished Jewish people. A group of influential Jews obtained permission to form a “charitable fund for a useful purpose” in honour of the Tsar’s 25th anniversary. “ORT” was coined from the acronym of the Russian words “Obshestvo Remeslennogo i Zemledelcheskogo Truda ” meaning The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labour. ORT distributed funds to Jewish schools for handicraft and agricultural training and provided grants or loans to artisans and farmers.

In the 1900s the organisation began to sponsor cooperative ventures, to support training programmes in Jewish schools and to establish its own vocational schools. During and after World War I, ORT’s workshops, credit and labour offices saved thousands from starvation and unemployment. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, ORT worked with the Soviet authorities to establish and support industrial and agricultural collectives. It imported and supplied materials, machinery, farming equipment and expertise throughout the Soviet Union.

In the 1930s ORT was involved in the resettlement of Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Region in Birobidzhan. It supported several workshops and factories including cedar oil and timber-chemical plants, brickworks, a sawmill, and marble, furniture and haberdashery factories.

In 1938 ORT’s cooperation agreement with the Soviet authorities expired and was not renewed. ORT was forced to cease operations in the Soviet Union.