ORT: Creating an Education Revolution

All education is valuable, but an ORT education is transformational. Just ask Nell Racabi in Israel and Yosef Abrahamson in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Though half a world apart, their lives have changed forever, due in part to the power of ORT’s educational resources.

For as long as she can remember, Nell Racabi, an 11th-grade student at Western Galilee Regional High in Israel, has been drawn to science. In her first year of junior high school, she obtained the opportunity to participate in ORT’s Kadima Mada-Science Journey program, and took immediate advantage by enrolling herself concurrently in chemistry, physics and biology — a true triple threat, especially considering that only 5 percent of students in Israel handle a triple major.

“The interactive Smart boards,” she explains, “surfing online to look for information in real time, using data loggers to create experiments with immediate results — all of this makes the class cool and fun and modern.”

To pay for her good luck and creative opportunities, Nell volunteers as a physics teacher for middle-school students in order to inspire them to pursue science both as a career and a passion.

Though high school graduation and military service are in her immediate plans, Nell is certain of her goals to make a significant contribution to our world through science.

In Brooklyn, N.Y., Yosef Abrahamson found a third family at Bramson ORT College to add to the one headed by his mother (the great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor) and his Chabad Lubavitch Orthodox community in Crown Heights where they live.

Born in Nebraska, and previously home-schooled, Yosef encountered students and faculty from around the world at Bramson that helped him discover a new and expansive view of himself and life around him. His confidence in writing and public speaking grew, and it was this assurance that motivated him to publish an essay, graduate with the highest academic honors, and obtain his associate’s degree in Business Management. Now he has his sights on bigger dreams, and is positive that Bramson ORT has prepared him to take his next step forward.

Though 5,800 miles separate them, education bonds them. Nell and Yosef are united members of a community whose lives have been irrevocably changed for the better through the gift of an ORT education. This is what ORT does and has been doing for 132 years.

As one of the largest global, Jewish non-governmental education organizations, ORT is undoubtedly making an impact. In 60 countries, from Israel to Argentina to the United States and beyond, ORT offers a superb education, at various student levels, in innovative fields such as biochemistry, business management, robotics and engineering, medical reporting and more. Through a curriculum that prioritizes science and technology education, career-ready skills, classrooms equipped with up-to-date equipment and facilities, and intensive teacher training, ORT fosters academic ingenuity and economic stability among the 300,000 students it serves each year.