ORT history books, essays and publications.
Several books, articles and other publications have been written about ORT's past work and activities. Anniversaries were often catalysts to these publications. Some were produced internally by ORT staff, some were created by our alumni and supporters, while others were researched and written by professional historians and published more formally. Together they provide a fascinating insight into ORT's history. The following titles cover a wide period and while some offer an overall view of the organisation's history, others focus on individual countries or specific enterprises. Many of these rely on archive materials that can be found in other sections of this website.
History of the Founding of ORT by Grigory Aronson, 1930.
This narrative provides background on the situation of Russian Jews prior to and around the time of ORT's foundation between 1869-1906. It describes the initial efforts by ORT's founders, fundraising and administration of the Interim ORT Committee,…
L’Histoire de l’ORT en Roumanie, 1931-1949, draft, undated.
This draft document in French reports the history of ORT in Romania between 1931 and 1949. It contains a chronological history including statistics and press cuttings across the period in scope.
Material and Memoirs: Chapters for the History of ORT, Geneva: ORT Union, June 1955.
A series of articles by ORT personnel covering the history and activities of the organisation at key points in its past from their personal perspective. Includes articles by: Dr Aron Syngalowski, Dr Leon Bramson, Dr David Lvovitch, Senator Herbert…
80 Years of ORT: Historical Materials, Documents and Reports, Geneva: ORT Union, 1960.
A collection of articles, reproduced documents, and summaries of governing bodies meetings providing an overview of the history of the organisation on it's 80th anniversary.
The History of British ORT: 1919 until 1973 by Cecily Zimmermann, London, 1976.
This document from 1976 covers the beginnings of British ORT and its subsequent history. It tells of British ORT's work during the Second World and its aftermath. ORT's establishment of schools and partnerships in Britain and the subsequent…
By the Skill of Their Hands: The Story of ORT by Jack Rader, Geneva: WOU, 1970.
By the Skill of Their Hands is the exciting and inspiring story of ORT—the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training—and its growth and development during the first ninety years of its life and service.
ORT in Lithuania by Jacob Oleiski, draft, undated.
In the years 1918-1941, during Lithuania's political independence, ORT fulfilled a significant mission for the isolated Jewish Community there. This established of ORT as the only Jewish agency in the world which concerned itself with providing…
One Hundred Quotes on ORT, World ORT, 2010.
The 100 quotations in this book have been taken from speeches, correspondence or items previously published in ORT articles and documents. Quotations come from heads of state, public figures, distinguished academics, ORT leaders and ORT staff and…
A History of the ORT Central Institute at Anières–Geneva (1949–1999) by Jacques Levy. (English)
Published in Geneva by Geneva Jewish Heritage Association (Patrimoine juif genevois), 2021. Made available here by kind permission of the author.
Histoire de l’Institut Central ORT Anières-Genève (1949-1999) by Jacques Levy. (French)
Published in Geneva by Geneva Jewish Heritage Association (Patrimoine juif genevois), 2021. Made available here by kind permission of the author.
Leon Shapiro, The History of ORT: A Jewish Movement for Social Change, 2nd ed., 2010.
Second edition [first published 1980] with a new foreword by David Cesarani, London: World ORT, 2010.
Educating for Life: New Chapters in the History of ORT, London: World ORT, 2010.
Edited by Rachel Bracha, Adi Drori-Avraham and Geoffrey Yantian. Includes articles by: Adi Drori-Avraham, Gennady Estraikh, Judah Harstein, Alexander Ivanov, Sarah Kavanaugh, Lynn Leeb, Vyacheslav Leshchiner, Harry Nadler, and Geoffrey Yantian.
Published books
| Bracha, Rachel (ed.) | One Hundred QUOTES On ORT | London: World ORT | 2010 | |
| Bracha, Drori-Avraham and Yantian (eds.) | Educating for Life: New Chapters in the History of ORT | London:World ORT | 2010 | ISBN:9780953826575 (hardback); ISBN:9780953826599 (paperback) |
| Glogowski, Philippe and Lionel Courtot, Mazal | The Lucky Star: History of ORT and Its Calling | Strasbourg: Editions de Signe | 2013 | ISBN:9782746829634 |
| Kavanaugh, Sarah | ORT, the Second World War and the Rehabilitation of Holocaust Survivors | London: Vallentine Mitchell | 2008 | ISBN:9780853038061 |
| Person, Katarzyna, edited by Rachel Bracha | ORT and the Rehabilitation of Holocaust Survivors: ORT Activities 1945-1956 | London: World ORT | 2012 | |
| Polack, Emmanuelle (ed.) | The Tradesmen and Farmers of ‘Yiddishland’ 1921-1938 | Paris: Somogy Éditions D’art, ORT France and Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris | 2006 | ISBN:2850568627 |
| Rader, Jack | By the Skill of Their Hands: The Story of ORT: A Jewish Movement for Social Change | Geneva: World ORT Union | 1970 | |
| Shapiro, Leon | The History of ORT: A Jewish Movement for Social Change, [first published 1980] second edition with a new foreword by David Cesarani | London: World ORT | 2010 | ISBN:0805237399 |
| Facing the Future: 1880-2000 | London, World ORT | 2000 | ISBN:0953826503 | |
| The Hope and the Illusion: The Search for a Russian Jewish Homeland, a Remarkable Period in the History of ORT | London: World ORT | 2006 | ISBN:9780953826544 | |
| ORT, 1880-1980 With introduction by Renzo Levy | Rome: Carucci Editore | 1980 |
Published journal articles and academic papers and theses
| Aronson, Gregory | ‘Memoir of the Secretary of ORT’, with introduction and commentary by Alexander Ivanov, in O. Budnitskii (ed.) | Archive of Jewish History, Volume 3, Moscow:International Center for Russian and East European Jewish Studies, pp. 94-124 | 2006 | |
| Bumblauskas, M. | The ORT Vilna Technicum in 1921–1940: Circumstances of Its Establishment, Activities, and Uniqueness. | Relevant Tomorrow, 3(23–24), 63–80. | 2023 | https://doi.org/10.51740/RT.3.23.24.4 |
| Estraikh, Gennady | Changing Ideologies of Artisanal “Productivisation”: ORT in Late Imperial Russia' | East European Jewish Affairs, 39:1, pp. 3-18 | 2009 | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501670902750253 |
| Estraikh, Gennady | ‘Jacob Lestschinsky: A Yiddishist Dreamer and Social Scientist’ | Science in Context 20:2, pp. 215–237 | 2007 | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0269889707001251 |
| Ivanov, Alexander | ‘From a Russian-Jewish Philanthropic Organization to the ‘Glorious Institute of World Jewry’: Activities of the World ORT Union in the 1920s—1940s’ | Schulte, Tabachnikova and Wagstaff (eds.), The Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917-1937, Leiden and Boston: Brill, pp. 381-410 | 2012 | |
| Ivanov, Alexander, | ‘ORT in Birobidzhan, 1933 – 1937’ | Pinkas: Culture and History of East European Jewry, Vol. III, The Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews, Vilnius, pp. 108-139 | 2010 | |
| Ivanov, Alexander | ‘Nähmaschinen und Brillantringe – Die Tätigkeit der Berliner ORT 1920-1943’ [Sewing machines and diamond rings - the work of the Berlin ORT 1920-1943] | in V. Dohrn and G. Pickhan (eds.), Transit und Transformation: Osteuropäisch-Jüdische Migranten in Berlin 1918-1939, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 195-209 | 2010 | |
| Ivanov, Alexander | 'Facing East: the World ORT Union and the Jewish Refugee Problem in Europe, 1933-38', East European Jewish Affairs, 39: 3 | pp. 369-388 | 2009 | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501670903298278 |
| Ivanov, Alexander | 'From Charity to Productive Labour', East European Jewish Affairs, 37:1 | pp. 1-28 | 2007 | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13501670701197821 |
| Munitz, Arieh | The “ORT” Associations in the Soviet Union 1917-1938 | Tel Aviv: Pirsume ha-Agudah le-ḥeḳer toldot ha-Yehudim, Tel Aviv University. Book 34 of Pirsume haMakhon le-ḥeḳer ha-tefutsot. | 1980 | |
| Person, Katarzyna | ‘"A Constructive Form of Help": Vocational Training as a Form of Rehabilitation of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, 1939–1948’, in Melilah (Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies), Vol. 8 | pp. 84-95 | 2011 | ISBN 978-1-4632-0221-7 |
| Renzo, Chiara | "Individual Recovery and Collective Redemption through Skilled Labor after the Holocaust: The Organization for Rehabilitation through Training in Italy" | Jahrbuch des Dubnow-Instituts /Dubnow Institute Yearbook XIX 2020/2021, p. 55-80 | doi.org/10.13109/9783666302039.55 | |
| Tapuach, Shimshon | ORT Activities in Poland 1945-1950 | Research Paper no. 6, Tabenkin Institute, Israel | 1981 | |
Unpublished dissertations and theses
| Polack, Emmanuelle | L'ORT, une organisation juive pendant l'Occupation | Unpublished dissertation submitted to Universite Paris I Sorbonne | 2000. |
| Martina Ravagnan | I profughi ebrei in Italia nel secondo dopoguerra (1945-1950) [Jewish Displaced Persons in post-war Italy (1945-1950). Includes a section on ORT (pp. 79-84).] | Masters degree dissertation submitted to the University of Bologna | 2011 |
Other publications
| Berelejis, Zucker and Muszkat (eds.) | Libro Aniversario 80 Anos "ORT" y 25 Anos ORT en Argentina, Buenos Aires: ORT Argentina and the South American ORT | 1960. | |
| Goldmann, Sussia | O.R.T. Die grosse Organisation des jüdischen Fachbildungswesens [ORT the big organisation of the Jewish education system]. Reprint from Wirtschaftsrevue, No. 33, c. | 1964. | |
| Contributors: Gregory Aronson, Sussya [Sussia] Goldmann, Aaron Syngalowski | 80 Years of ORT: Historical Materials, Documents and Reports, Geneva: ORT Union | 1960. | |
| Contributors: Aron Syngalowski, Leon Bramson, David Lvovitch, Senator Herbert Lehman, Wilhelm Graetz, L.V. Frenkiel, Rachel Gourman, A.C. Litton, Dr. Mowshowitch, A.A. Yakir, J. Frumkin | Material and Memoirs: Chapters for the History of ORT, Geneva: ORT Union | June 1955. | |
| Former and Current ORT Members | Staff and Students' Memoirs and Publications | ||
| Frimtzis, Robert | From Tajikistan to the Moon: A Story of Tragedy, Survival and Triumph of the Human Spirit, 2008. ISBN: 9780615199030. | ||
| Goetz, Samuel | I Never Saw My Face, 2001. ISBN: 9781587768514. | ||
| Harmatz, Joseph | Life with ORT, Tel Aviv: Joseph Harmatz in cooperation with ORT Israel, 2002. | ||
| Makover, Batia | Tsur, Muki, Yilma, Shmuel (ed.), The Power of One: The Story of a Man who Opened the Route to Israel via Sudan for the Ethiopian Jews. Ferede Yazezew Aklum, 2019. Translator: Heidi Gleit. | ||
| Malkes, Simon | Le Juste de la Wehrmacht | 2012 | ISBN: 9782748395976. |
| Malkes, Simon | English version: The Righteous of the Wehrmacht | 2015 | ISBN: 9781618114495 |
| Meaux, Lorraine de | The Gunzburgs: A Family Biography. Translator: Steven Rendall | 2019 | ISBN: 9781905559992. |
| Offner, Robert | The Different and the Strange: Tales of work abroad 1962-1989 | 1997. | |
| Oleiski, Jacob | Jacob Oleiski: A Man's Work, Tel Aviv: Hotsa'at ORT Israel: Igud yots'e Litabe-Israel [ORT Israel, the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel] | 1986. | |
| Singer, Robert | From Generation to Generation: fourteen years as CEO of World ORT. Assessment, structure and activities from 1999 to 2013, London: World ORT | 2013. |