5. World ORT Union operates three
day schools in the post-Soviet sucessor states -- in St. Petersburg
and Moscow in Russia, and in Odessa in Ukraine. A new school will
open in Kyiv in January, and ORT will install extensive programs
in two existing Chabad schools in the near future, in Samara (Russia)
and Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine). The Moscow ORT
Secondary School (School #326), which was established in
1995, currently enrolls 350 pupils in grades five through 11.
The first hour of the writer’s visit to the
school was in the company of a small ORT
fundraising mission of lay leaders from England and the United
States. The group was led by Robert
Singer, Director General of World ORT, and Dr.
Gideon Meyer, Deputy Director General and Director of Operations.20
Mr. Singer informed the delegation that, although the school was
the most technologically advanced secondary school in Moscow when
it opened in 1995, it no longer is the city leader. Other, locally-sponsored,
schools now offer more sophisticated programs. The area of greatest
need, said Mr. Singer, is developing appropriate technology curricula
for the middle school grades. Delegation members were taken on a
tour of the school and later watched a student talent show staged
in their honor. The group then proceeded on a sightseeing tour of
Moscow and would fly out to Samara on the following day.
Following departure of the fundraising mission,
the writer met with Vladimir Lerner,21
Director General of ORT for the CIS and Baltic States, and Vladimir
Leshiner, the school principal. Mr. Leshiner said that 80
percent of pupils are Jewish according to the Law of Return;22
perhaps half of that number are Jewish according to halakha. Twenty
percent of all pupils have no Jewish ancestry at all; most such
youngsters reside in the general neighborhood of the school, a policy
intended to advance the community relations agenda of ORT.
School policy also provides for the admission
of all Chamah pupils who wish to enroll at ORT following completion
of the third grade at Chamah. Almost all Chama youngsters enroll
at ORT, rather than at Migdal Ohr or at the Chabad school (also
known as the Kuravsky School, in reference to its principal, Zev
Kuravsky), said Mr. Leshiner. The school also receives “many”
applications from youngsters currently enrolled in Beit Yehudit,
Etz Chaim, and the Kuravsky school because families find these schools
too religious; however, ORT policy is encourage all pupils enrolled
at other Jewish schools to remain in those schools. It prefers to
accept new students from non-Jewish schools so that Jewish youngsters
with no previous exposure to Judaism have the opportunity to become
acquainted with their heritage.
Mr. Leshiner estimates that about one-third of
the families with children in the school are poor. Many of these
are single-parent families with the custodial parent unemployed
or in a low-paying job. Some youngsters are cared for by grandparents,
who are dependent upon inadequate pensions and meager child-support
payments from the state.
Perhaps ten families with children in the ORT school
are wealthy. Typically, they own automobile dealerships or chains
of retail shops. Mr. Leshiner calls upon such families for support
of various specific projects in the school; some of them contributed
a total of $50,000 for renovations that were completed during the
past summer. Some contributed cash, others donated materials required
for the designated repairs.
Youngsters in the school seemed to have a strong
sense of camaraderie and a well-developed school spirit. All pupils
and staff wore identification badges with personal photographs.
School facilities
include three multimedia computer classrooms and two technology
laboratories for robotics and other advanced courses.23
New fitness equipment had been purchased recently for physical education
classes.
All pupils in the school, whether Jewish or non-Jewish,
are enrolled in seven class periods of Jewish
education each week. Four periods are in Hebrew language
instruction, two are in Jewish history, and one is in Jewish tradition.
Additional class time is designated for geography of Israel in the
seventh and tenth grades. In addition to Jewish subjects, all pupils
take four classes in English each week, as well as compulsory classes
in basic technology and in computer skills. Youngsters may also
choose two to three hours of technology
electives each week in such areas as computer-aided design,
computer art, web design, network operation, robotics, or advanced
desktop publishing. In response to a comment by the writer that
the English-language skills of youngsters with whom she spoke during
a tour of the school seemed much more advanced than their Hebrew-language
skills, Mr. Leshiner said that that the Hebrew teachers sent to
ORT by the Ministry of Education in Israel lacked appropriate qualifications
for their positions.24
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