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[ORT] : STATUTN FUN DER GEZELSHAFT TSU FARSHPRAYTN HANDVERKERAY UN LANDVIRTSHAFT TSVISHN YIDN ("ORT")

Vlina: No Publisher [Ort? Printed by Sh. Likhtmakher], 1919

Presume 1st edition. Original printed paper wrappers, 12mo, 8 pages. In Yiddish. Title translates as, “Statutes of the Society for Promoting Craftsmanship and Agriculture among the Jews ("ORT"). “ORT” is the Russian abbreviation standing for the Society for Handicraft and Agricultural Work among the Jews of Russia (“Obshchestvo Remeslennago i Zemledelecheskago Truda Sredi Evreev v Rossii”). Rulebook for what would have been the new ORT organization in newly independent Lithuania following the end of WW I. “The initiator of ORT was Nikolai Bakst (1842–1904), a Jewish professor of medicine who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg. In 1880, with a group of rich and communal-minded individuals, he set up a handicrafts fund administered by a provisional committee to support craft education in schools and other means to encourage Jews to become artisans and agriculturalists.… It was not until 1905 that the organization was able to receive approval of revised bylaws and to operate legally with headquarters in Saint Petersburg. Affiliated branches were permitted in almost every city with a substantial Jewish population. Membership rose rapidly, as did the funds available for disbursement.…even though the activities of ORT did not, in fact, transform the patterns of Russian Jewry, they did enable a great number of individuals to improve their lives and the image of Jews in the general Russian population. ORT’s efforts to stimulate the development of economic cooperatives and self-help among Jews had a particularly positive impact. During World War I, ORT was very active in developing labor exchanges to help unemployed Jews and refugees find productive work and means for support for themselves and their families. In many cases, ORT helped set up workshops. After the war, ORT began to work outside of Russia in the framework of a union of ORT societies, and ultimately the center moved outside of Russia to Paris and later Berlin. After the establishment of the USSR, ORT was able for some time to assist in programs to transform Jews into farmers and skilled industrial workers. The Soviet ORT cooperated with the ORT union abroad and was involved in a wide range of activities, including assistance to settlements in Birobidzhan and the importation of agricultural machinery and technical tools from the West, along with various educational activities…. During the interwar period, ORT was also active in Poland and in the other newly independent states of Eastern Europe as well as elsewhere. It operated in close conjunction with other philanthropic frameworks such as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and had a major impact on the ability of East European Jewish communities to adjust to new political and economic conditions. Even after the Nazi conquest of Eastern Europe, ORT continued activities in the ghettos, though in a much-curtailed manner” (YIVO Encyclopedia).For more on ORT, seeArieh Munitz, Irgune “Ort” bi-Verit ha-Mo‘atsot ba-shanim 1917–1938 (Tel Aviv, 1980/81); ORT, 1880–2000: Facing the Future (London, 2000), in English, Hebrew, and Russian; Jack Rader, By the Skill of Their Hands: The Story of ORT (Geneva, 1960?), also available at http://archive.ort.org; Leon Shapiro, The History of ORT: A Jewish Movement for Social Change (New York, 1980).No copies on OCLC. We could not locate a copy anywhere, including YIVO, Harvard, and NLI. Paper toning but strong, a few light stains to cover, but an outstanding copy, Very Good Condition. Important, and perhaps a unique surviving copy. (YID-43-26)

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