Values, leadership and community

40,000 students participate every year in programs led by the ORTOV Department.

The ORT network is committed to two major values which lead the activity in all of our schools: scientific and technological education, and moral education. Moral education is perceived by the ORT Israel management as being of utmost importance, and as such, is integrated into the educational and social work of all the schools of the network.

Social responsibility and contribution to the community, co-existence, strengthening the inter-generational relationship, multiculturalism, raising awareness to ecology and sustainability, etc., are all social issues that are at the top of the Israeli public agenda and are related to the key values that lead the ORT network as a whole. ORT schools perceive the students as the citizens of tomorrow: as young leaders who are involved in the community and assume responsibility for individuals and society.

The ORTOV Department – the department of moral education, is the leader in the moral-social field of the ORT Israel network, and its staff accompanies the schools in implementing social engagement, heritage, and volunteering programs while sharing resources and collaborating with and among schools in the network. The department leads network and inter-regional activities and events designed to deepen identification with the network, multicultural identity, and the creation of the most beneficial environment in the schools.

The programs include a training program, professional guidance from within the school and outside of it, and familiarity with groups operating in the other schools. Many of the programs involve collaboration with other institutions and organizations that contribute knowledge and resources.

The department develops and promotes large-scale cross-network projects that are operated in the various schools and assist in implementing social engagement and volunteering values nationally. The programs and projects are built in a three-year format, as part of which students participating in the project can undergo training to become the project’s guides, and to effectively lead the training program for new pupils.

Additionally, the department spearheads the implementation of values in social and pedagogical programs which will later be integrated with the Ministry of Education’s reform. Each school chooses a leading value to be applied to all the school’s learning and activities, starting with the pedagogical field, continuing with the social-experiential field, to the performance field, which promotes students’ leadership and entrepreneurship, and the extension of the moral discourse to the community.

Currently, ORTOV develops and leads several programs of social engagement and entrepreneurship, volunteering in the community, young leadership and multicultural dialogue, in which approximately 40,000 students participate every year.

The ORTOV department places a major emphasis on the promotion and development of youth leadership, through the establishment of a cohort of leading youth: some are involved in entrepreneurship, planning and leading value-based programs, others serve as guides and accompany their colleagues in the implementaion of these programs. Other teenagers continue to volunteer for a year of service, a ‘Nahal’ group (establishing or joining an existing village) or national service. All these youth groups maintain a dialogue of initiation, empowerment, and peer learning.