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Left: Gideon Meyer, deputy director general for World ORT
Above: Patti Aaron ofWest Bloomfield, vice president of Women's American
ORT, Doreen Hermelin of Bingham Farms, Gideon Meyer, and Dana
Burnstein ofWest Bloomfield, president of Women's American ORT Michigan
Region.
248-645-5930
CHILDREN AT RISK
===
World ORT leader talks of challenges from
violence and economic crises at ORT
schools in Israel and Argentina.
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ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Special to the Jewish News
he crises engulfing
Argentina and Israel have
led to serious problems for
World ORT, one of the
largest education and training organi-
zations in the world.
Dr. Gideon Meyer, ORT's London-
based deputy director general, briefed
local leadership and professionals
March 6-7 at the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building in Bloomfield
Township. He stressed the need for
increased funding for ORT schools
and said the political and economic
turmoil is having a devastating effect
on Jews in both countries.
"It is causing hardship for thousands
of ORT students and teachers, their
families and communities," he said.
More than 300,000 students in 60
countries participate in ORT's net-
work of technological and vocational
schools and colleges.
In Israel, home to 140 ORT
schools, the Ministry of Education
had to cut about 4 percent from its
budget because of national security
needs, causing a loss of $15 million to
ORT Israel, affecting its ability to edu-
cate more than 100,000 students —
immigrant and native-born Israeli Jews
as well as Druze and Israeli Arabs.
ORT schools reflect the diversity of
Israeli society.
"Students are leaving at 11 a.m.
instead of 3 p.m. because we don't
have the money to pay the teachers,"
Meyer said.
With the continuing violence in
Israel, funds also are needed to
increase security at ORT schools and
to provide counseling for traumatized
students. In the past year, 24 current
ORT students or recent graduates
were killed, and Meyer fears more
casualties. In ORT classrooms, chairs
left empty serve as a reminder of those
who can't return.
Meyer spoke of visiting Argentina, a
country experiencing its worst eco-
nomic crisis in its history, which has
sparked riots and political instability.
Over the past two years, about 25 per-
cent of the 230,000 Argentine Jews —
primarily middle-class professionals
and small business owners — has been
plunged into poverty along with their
countrymen.
In the capital city of Buenos Aires,
ORT Argentina's schools, technical
high schools and junior colleges are
becoming increasingly vital to the sur-
vival of their 7,500 students, who get
meals along with their lessons.
"We serve breakfast at our schools
because they didn't have dinner,"
Meyer said.
Unemployed parents in Buenos
Aires no longer can afford $5,000 for
six years at the ORT high school,
which Meyer calls one of the "jewels"
in the ORT system. "The situation is
a disaster," he said.
With the approach of a new Latin
American school year on March 11,
ORT Argentina had secured only
$800,000 of the $1.2 million needed
to open its doors. A total of $5.9 mil-
lion must be secured to take the pro-
gram through the school year. There is
nothing available for scholarships.
"We've never had to turn down stu-
dents. But this year, yes," he said.
If Jewish families in Argentina are
unable to pay the tuition of an ORT
school, some may send their children
to the local Catholic school, free of
charge.
"Can we afford such a situation?"
• Meyer asked his audience. ❑
World ORT is a nonprofit, non-politi-
cal organization that seeks to meet the
educational and vocational requirements
of students on five continents. ORT
schools in the C,entral Galilee region of
Israel are part of the Jewish Federation
of IVIetropolitan Detroit-Jewish Agency
For Israel Partnership 2000 program.
For information about OR1", call
Michelle Passon, VC/Omen's American
ORT Michigan Region director, at
(248) 723-8860; Suzanne Curtis, direc-
tor of the Detroit chapter ofAmerican
ORT, at (248) 681-7587; or visit the
ORT Web site: wvvw.ort.org
T