Lithuania

The ORT Sholom Aleichem Jewish Gymnasium provides a nationally renowned general and ICT-based education and a Jewish Studies curriculum which ensures that its students are able to reconnect with their heritage.

In 2015, 13 years after joining the ORT network, the school moved into large, fully refurbished premises in the centre of Vilnius. There are currently around 430 full-time students at the school.

ORT has also established a Media Centre in the Jewish Community Centre to provide computer training and job search support for Vilnius’s adult Jewish community.

But the school’s influence extends beyond the Jewish community: it works with the Ministry of Education, the Pedagogical University of Lithuania and others, and trains teachers from across the capital in the use of educational technology.

ORT’s work in Lithuania began in 1920, setting up vocational schools, apprenticeship programs and projects for the local Jewish community. During the war, ORT operated in Kovno ghetto until its liquidation in 1944.