British ORT
ORT House
126 Albert Street
London
NW1 7NE
Tel: 020 7446 8520
Fax: 020 7446 8654
Email: info@britishort.org
ORT – “one of the world’s great institutions”
The year has ended on a high note with the British ORT 90th anniversary Gala Dinner raising over £450,000 for the network of 18 ORT Jewish Day Schools in the Former Soviet Union, where science and technology are taught alongside Jewish heritage and faith.
The 250 guests were enthralled by the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Lord Sacks, who gave a characteristically erudite keynote speech.
"It's a privilege to pay tribute to ORT, one of the world's great institutions," the Chief Rabbi said before placing its work in a historical and cultural context.
The advent of instantaneous global communication was, like other fundamental developments in communication before it, the invention of writing, the invention of the alphabet and the invention of printing, changing civilisation and precipitating one of the greatest periods of turbulence in history, he said. The first alphabet was Hebrew and brought with it the possibility of universal literacy.
"We became the people of the alphabet who became the people of the Book. Thereby we became the only nation in history to predicate its survival on education. We became the people whose citadels were schools, whose heroes were teachers and whose passion was education and the life of the mind," he said.
"That's the Jewish value beyond belief. And that's the Jewish value that ORT is making real for Jewish and non-Jewish children throughout the world – and that's so beautiful… ORT is teaching the world how to learn."
"While equipping our students with the knowledge and skills they need to enter the workforce, we also bring the rich mosaic of our faith back to forgotten Jewish communities, whose association with Judaism was cruelly riven by decades of communist oppression," said British ORT Chairman Simon Alberga.
The Chief Rabbi concurred, saying: "For many of those young people those ORT schools are their one real living connection with Judaism. The work that ORT is doing is just magnificent."
Entertainment on the night was provided by writers and broadcasters Vanessa Feltz and David Baddiel with the former interviewing the latter on his career, his film Infidel, and Jewish identity.
Pictures of the event can be found here!
"It's a privilege to pay tribute to ORT, one of the world's great institutions," the Chief Rabbi said before placing its work in a historical and cultural context.
The advent of instantaneous global communication was, like other fundamental developments in communication before it, the invention of writing, the invention of the alphabet and the invention of printing, changing civilisation and precipitating one of the greatest periods of turbulence in history, he said. The first alphabet was Hebrew and brought with it the possibility of universal literacy.
"We became the people of the alphabet who became the people of the Book. Thereby we became the only nation in history to predicate its survival on education. We became the people whose citadels were schools, whose heroes were teachers and whose passion was education and the life of the mind," he said.
"That's the Jewish value beyond belief. And that's the Jewish value that ORT is making real for Jewish and non-Jewish children throughout the world – and that's so beautiful… ORT is teaching the world how to learn."
"While equipping our students with the knowledge and skills they need to enter the workforce, we also bring the rich mosaic of our faith back to forgotten Jewish communities, whose association with Judaism was cruelly riven by decades of communist oppression," said British ORT Chairman Simon Alberga.
The Chief Rabbi concurred, saying: "For many of those young people those ORT schools are their one real living connection with Judaism. The work that ORT is doing is just magnificent."
Entertainment on the night was provided by writers and broadcasters Vanessa Feltz and David Baddiel with the former interviewing the latter on his career, his film Infidel, and Jewish identity.
Pictures of the event can be found here!