WORLD UNION FINANCIALAND ACCOUNTING OFFICE THE BI-WEEKLYSUMMARY 200 West 72nd Street, New York 23, New York RESTRICTEDCIRCULATION ENDICOTT 2-0556 •CABLE ADDRESS:ORTUNION, NEW YORK Vol. III, June 8, 1949 MPANSION OF ORT WORK IN NORTH AFRICA A Statement by Dr. David Lvovitch "The great and urgent problem of training the Jews in North Africa will soon be solved", said Dr. David Lvovitch, Chairman, Executive Committee, World ORTUnion, in a statement made upon his return from a tour of the ORT schools in Morocco and Algierl Dr. Lvovitch was accompanied by Mr. Salomon Grumbach, former President of the State's :iommittee of Foreign Affairs, and secretary of. the French ORT Parliamentary Committee. "The ORT-Alliance School at Casablanca, founded in 1946, has presently an attendance of 660 pupils", Dr. Lvovitch continuedy"Due to look of space the school cannot admit any more pupils for the time being. ORT is therefore building a great house outside of Casablanca on a plot of 30,000 square meters which the devoted and indefatigable president of the Moroccan ORT, Jules Senouf, has graciously put at our disposal. "This building will house the various trade courses. A boarding house for one thou- sand boys will be connected with the school. Later, we will also build a new school for girls. Thus, two thousand Jewish children now living under the most miserable conditions in the Mellah will be taken out of their usual surroundings; we shall save their lives. There is no doubt that vocational training is imperative for the Moroccan Jews. Indeed; this is the only way por,sible for them to escape complete disaster. Among the children of the Mellah; Vaere are many who have never attended a school ihilo othors have attended the schools of the Alliance Israelite Univer- selle. This organization does an excellent job, but it is of greatest importance that these thousands of children, who had only several years of grammar school, re- ceive a good vocational training." During their stay in Casablanca, Dr. Lvovitch and Mr. S. Grumbach had an interview with General Juin, General-Resident of France in Morocco. On this occasion General Juin expressed great interest in the work of ORT and its plans for expansion, which will be carried through partly with funds derived from the Marshall Plane The two visitors also had the opportunity to discuss ORT s plans with high officials of the various technical departments of Morocco,, At Alg:I.ers, Mr. Grumbach and Dr. Lvovitch visited the ORT school!. which was modernized last year. ORTwork in Algiers started as early as 1940 when Professor William Oualid, Chairman of ORT, himself an Algerian, initiated ORT activities in that country. klthough in the northern part of Algeria the Jews live under better conditions than in Morocco, their situation in the southern part of the country is deplorable,and for that reason ORT plans to build a boarding school in Algiers. Dr. Lvovitch and. Ur0 Grumbachfounda verycordialreceFtiononthe partof Yr. Mrcel E. Naegelen, 4 Bi-WeeklySummary,Vol.III,02 2 Governor-GeneralofAlgeriaand formerMinisterofNationalEducation.Mr.Naegelen has for severalyearsbeenwell acquaintedwiththe work of ORT and has on many oc- casionofferedhisactivesupport. He has againpromisedtodo all in his pamerto facilitatetherapiddevelopmentofORT schoolsinAlgeria. LATESTDEVELOPMENTSINORTWORE THROUGHOUTEUROPE Emigrationoftens of thousandsofORT graduatesandstudentsfromall European countries,mainlyto Israel;inaugurationofthe ORTwork in Israel;expansionof the ORTwork in NorthAfrica;and nationalizationofORT sChoolsin Rumaniawerethe main featuresmarkingORTIsactivitiesduringthelast six months. The emigrationproceededata veryrapidpacein the DP countries,aswell as in suchEasternEuropeancountriesasBulgariaandCzechoslovakia.Itspacewas markedly slowerin Poland,Hungaryandthe WesternEuropeancountries.This developmentaf- fectingthe scopeof ourwork has to some oxtentbeenbalancedby increasedORTcare for the handicapped,governmentrecognitionofORTwork in most Europeancountries and - last,not least- by the openingof ORT schoolsin Israel. Dr. SyngalowskitsreportonIsrael,quotedinBiAleeklySummary,Vol.III,#11, re- vealedthat in April 19 courseswith562 studentswerealreadyfunctioninginvarious citiesand settlements.Expansionofthiswork to at least29 courseswith1,000 studentsduring1949will enablemanystudentswholeftEuropeancountriesbefore completionoftheirtrainingto continuetheirvocationaleducationwithORT in ' Israel. Confirmationhasrecentlybeenreceivedfromthe communitiesofMagdiel, Afulah,Rehovot,Ramatgan,PetachTikvah„Givataiim,Natanya,EinHarod,Givat Brenner,KfarVitkin,Eishmarot,Ramlehand Holonthatbuildingswillbe providedfor additionalORTtrainingcenters,thusassuringtheplannedgrowthof the ORT work in Israel. The expansionofORTwork in NorthAfricawill not only improvetheeconomicand socialstatusof the Jews in Moslemcountries,butwill addnorethousandsofwell- preparedimmigrantworkersto the tens of thousandsofORT traineesM11.0 are presently helpingto buildthe JewishState. The hugeemigrationofORT graduatesandstudentsis in itselfa measureof the suc..! cess of ORT in trainingthesepeoplefor emigrationandresettlement,anda token of the contributionORTis makingto the countriesof immigration,notablyto /srael, the UnitedStates,Canada,Australiaandto otherlands. The pastsix monthswere alsomarkedby strongeffortson the part of World ORT Union,as well as the ORT NationalCommittees,toincreaselocalincomes. To this end, ORT participatedinlocalfund-raisingcampaignsandinitiatednegotiations with governmentalandinter-governmentalagencieswithregardto subsidieswhich wouldenableORTto traintens of thousandsmorepoliticallyandeconomicallydis- placedpersonsandthus helpalleviatetheshortageof skilledlaborin Europe. Thoselatterefforts,althoughnotyet completed,holdpromiseof success. A shortdescriptionofrecentdevelopmentsinORTlsactivitiesinthe individual countriesfollows:* DP Operations In Germany,increasedDPemigration,notonlyto Israelbut-alsoto the UnitedStates andAustralia,hasbroughtthe studentenrollmentdawnto 3,503(3,100in the U.S. Zone,403 in the BritishZoneof Germany)as of I:arch31. The figuredroppedto - .Thisdescriptionispartlybasedon the "CondensedReportof ORT Activitiesfrom oiovember1948to the End of April 1949",sIY• -• *limb ld :ATUnion,at its meetingin Paris,on May 2, 1949,byWorldORT Union,Geneva. How- ever,in suchcaseswherethe FinancialandAccountingOffice,WorldORT Union,had laterinformationavailable,thesehavebeen substituted. Bi-Weekly Summary, Vol. III, W12 3,031 (2,686 in the U.S. Zone, 414 in the British Zoneloas of April 30. During the first quarter of 1949, 534 pupils were graduatedfrom ORT courses in the U.S. Zone, and 191 in the British Zone. The work in Germany is now in the process of reorganization. All schools in the Kassel-Frankfurtarea have been discontinuedwith the closing of the camps. Certain area offices have been closed, and the personnelhas been considerablyreduced. In the coming period, further consolidationwill be effected. Meanwhile,a number of community schools have been set up to train Jews who have drifted from camps to the cities. Whether these will be continued remainsto be seen. Increasedfacilitieshave been created for the training of special cases in the U.S. Zone. During April, ORT training was started at the rehabilitationcenter for in- valids and disabled in Aschau, and new traineeswere admitted to the courses for an., rested TB cases at Bayrish Gmain and Gauting. An ORT school for 162 children of all creeds and nationalitieswas establishedin the childrenlsvillage Bad Aibling. The reorganizationalso included the closing of the district offices in Kassel, RegenMAwg and Augsburg, the terminationof several internationalpersonnelin the U.S. Zone, and the discontinuationof the Bergen-BelsenSchool in the British Zone. In Austria, 677 studentswere enrolled in the ORT courses on April 1, and 631 on April 30, 1949. During the first quarter of 1949, 222 pupilswere graduated;during the month of April 33 students completed their training. The number of studentswho discontinuedtheir trainingwithout having graduated,amountedto 367 and 135 for the respective periods. The decrease in student enrollmenthas occurred in the Austrian proVinceSonly, while in Vienna student enrollment has been constantly in- creasing due to the influxof new refugees from the Eastern Europeancountries. The SalzburgORT school and officewere closed on April 30. The office was moved to Linz and the remainingstudents to Hallein,where a second barrack has been placed at the disposal of ORT by IRO. New courses have been opened at Steyr in goldsmithwork, machine shop practice and electro-mechanics. In these two latter courses educationel films are shown to the students under agreementwith Austrian local trade unions. The rehabilitationcenterat Ebelsbergadmitted41 studentsduringthe monthof April to learn leatherwork„bookbinding,dressmaking,hat and cap making. With the assist- ance of ORT, which loaned them several sewing machines, graduates of the Ebelsberg dressmakingcourses have formed a cooperativeand thus become self-supporting. In Italy, the number of DPIs has steadily decreased;however, the ORT sohools have engiTran increased influx of resident Jews, both adult and adolescent,especially in the larger cities such as Rome, Milan and Leghorn. The major part of ORT DP operationshave been conducted in southern Italy. As sever- al camps have been closed or transformed into transit camps (for instance, Trani, where ORT conducted 12 courses) sone of the pupils have been transferredto other