Israel

Since 2007, World ORT has operated in Israel as World ORT Kadima Mada, implementing programs that have raised standards of STEM education in underprivileged communities – Jewish and non-Jewish – in the country’s northern and southern peripheries.

Programs include the renovation and modernisation of more than 1,000 classrooms and laboratories – providing not only equipment such as interactive whiteboards but also training and learning materials; the establishment of after-school programs to introduce students to applied science subjects; the establishment of a science park in the coastal city of Kiryat Yam; and the running of educational services in all of Israel’s public hospitals to ensure children do not fall behind in their studies while undergoing treatment.

Kadima Mada has an educational network comprising six high schools, three of which are attached to Youth Villages and all of which have a high proportion of students from troubled and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Even before the declaration of Israeli independence, we were devoting our expertise and resources to help Jews make new and better lives in their ancient homeland: programs for Holocaust survivors even provided pilots and sailors for the new state’s air force and navy.