23 April 2004 (London, 23rd April 2004) World ORT will hold its first US based General Assembly in New York, 1st-3rd May, in honour of the 125th year of ORT. Registration is complete and 1,000 participants from 35 countries will take part in a variety of inspiring sessions and events. Keynote speakers include Irwin Cotler, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; Ambassador Alon Pinkas, Consul General of Israel in New York; Ambassador Martin Indyk, Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs and Former US Ambassador to Israel; Stuart A. Schweitzer, Managing Director and Global Markets Strategist JPMorgan Private Bank and JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management; and Lord Young of Graffham, Former UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. The General Assembly will open on the evening of 1st May with a celebration of those at the heart of ORT the students. A unique show of music and dance will be performed by 60 students from Israel, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and France. General Assembly delegates will be addressed by a variety of high calibre speakers from the academic, political and Jewish worlds. Topics to be covered include USA, Israel and the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities by Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations; Corporate Philanthropy in the Service of the Global Community by Bess Stephens, Vice President of Corporate Philanthropy & Education, Hewlett-Packard; ORTs Partnership with the North American Federation System and the Joint Distribution Committee by John Ruskay, Executive Vice President of New York Federations and Steve Schwager, Executive Vice President of the JDC; and Update on the Status of Recent Holocaust Restitution Litigation by Professor Burt Neuborne, John Norton Pomeray Professor of Law, New York University and Director of Brennan Centre for Justice. During the General Assembly World ORT will launch the 1880 Society, an elite society for major donors honouring the year of ORTs establishment in Tsarist Russia. Founding members will sign a commemorative scroll and, together with successive members, their names will be inscribed on the World ORT Wall of Honour at ORT Syngalowski in Tel Aviv, ORTs first school in Israel. World ORTs President, Justice Richard Goldstone, Former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, will end his second four year term at the General Assembly. The candidate to take over from Justice Goldstone and carry World ORT forward until 2008 is Sir Maurice Hatter, Chairman and owner of IMO Precision Controls Limited and Founder of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Studies at University College Hospital.