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Guide to the Records of the ORT Jewish Vocational School (Technicum) in Vilna,  RG 21

Processed by Felicia Figa with the assistance of a grant from the American ORT Federation, 1977. Finding Aid edited, encoded and posted online thanks to a grant  from the Gruss Lipper Family Foundation.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

© 2006 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. All rights reserved.

Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD version 2002 by Yakov Sklyar in October 2006. EAD finding aid customized in ARCHON in 2012. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Records of the ORT Jewish Vocational School (Technicum) in Vilna,  RG 21

ID: RG 21 FA

Extent: 2.5 Linear Feet

Arrangement: The collection is divided into 3 series:

Abstract

ORT Jewish Vocational School (Technicum) in Vilna was founded in 1921 to train young people who were unable to get into government-run schools, in the fields of mechanics and electronics. It was subsidized by ORT, Vilna Kehilla and the Vilna City Administration. The school possesed a technical library and published its own material for use by students. it was liquidated in 1939.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

Series I includes by-laws of the school, financial records, 1922-1937; file on legal matters; school statistics, 1921-1930, 1938-1939

Series II includes outgoing and incomimg correspondence. Outgoing: to the Central Committee of ORT (Warsaw), 1925, 1929, 1937-1939; to ORT, Vilna, 1923, 1928-1939; to the Polish Ministry ofEducation in Warsaw, 1922-1923, 1928-1939. Incoming: from ORT Central Committee (Warsaw), 1923-1934; ORT Vilna, 1921, 1928, 1939-1940; Polish Ministry of Education (Warsaw), 1922, 1925-1939; Central Committee of the Yiddish School Organization in Warsaw, 1938-1939.

Series III includes student medical cards, 1929-1938; student questionaires and other documents, lists of students, roll-books, exeminations; teachers' files including teaching outlines for general subjects, technological subjects, electronics, physics, chemistry; files on the school cultural activities including announcements, posters.

Historical Note

The Jewish Vocational School of the ORT in Vilna (also called “Technicum”) was founded in 1921 by a group of communal workers. One of them, Israel Okun, was the school’s director in the first three years of its existence. In 1924 he was replaced by Matisyahu Schreiber, who remained at this post until the liquidation of the school at the outbreack of World War II.

The task of the school was to prepare electricians and technically-trained specialists. The school's goal was to provide the impoverished Jewish youth in the difficult post-World War I years with an opportunity to acquire skills on the level of a trained technician.

A note should be made of the fact that for Jews, access to government run schools was very difficult. Therefore, Jewish youngsters from all parts of the country studied at the Vilna Technicum. Of 200 students, only 50 were from Vilna; the rest coming from Galicia, Volhynia, central Poland and other places.

The Technicum had two divisions: mechanical and electrotechnical. Classes were taught in Yiddish and the training period was 3 years (6 semesters). The school was subsidized by ORT, the Vilna Jewish Community Board, and the Vilna municipality. It was well equipped, had its own vocational library, and printed technical school books in Yiddish, as the needs of the students required.

The Vilna Jewish Vocational School provided a substantial number of qualified assistants for engineers, managers of small industrial enterprises, foremen of divisions in factories, technical draftsmen, etc. of special scholarly and educational interest are the student papers, teachers’ notes and curriculum. They yield evidence on the high level of learning and instruction represented by the Technicum.

The materials from the Vilna Technicum which YIVO received after World War II together with the Vilna Archives, are arranged in such a way as to reflect the structure and activities of the school. The collection consists of 98 folders and is 2’5” in size.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Open to researchers by appointment with the Chief Archivist. To request access to the collection, contact: Chief Archivist, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011 email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Preferred Citation: Published citations should read as follows:Identification of item, date (if known); YIVO Archives; Records of the ORT Jewish Vocational School (Technicum) in Vilna; RG 21; folder number.


Box and Folder Listing


Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Administrative Records, 1922-1940,
Series 3: Series III: Teachers' and Students' Files, Courses, 1921-1939,
Series 2: Series II: Correspondence, 1922-1940,
All

Series I: Administrative Records
1922-1940
Series I includes by-laws of the school, financial records, 1922-1937; file on legal matters; school statistics, 1921-1930, 1938-1939
Folder 1: Lists of members of the administration, executive board and board of overseers of the Technicum
undated
Folder 2: Memoranda, reports, articles and leaflets on the history, organization and goals of the Technicum
1925-1930
Folder 3: Drafts of by-laws
undated, 1922
Folder 4: Utilities inventory
1928-1939
Folder 5: Budgets
1922, 1924-1940
Folder 6: Teachers’ salaries
1924, 1926
Folder 7: Expense bills
1937-1939
Folder 8: Expense bills
1928-1939
Folder 9: Expense bills
1929-1939
Folder 10: Expense bills
1929
Folder 11: Expense bills
1927-1931
Folder 12: Bills from the Vilna municipality
1924-1927
Folder 13: Income Tax
1922-1927
Folder 14: Income Tax
1922-1927
Folder 15: Medical insurance. Monthly statements and correspondence with the insurance company (Zaklad Ubezpieczen Pracownikow Umyslowych)
1928-1931, 1933
Folder 16 a: General reports and statistics
1926, 1928, 1930, 1932-1933
Folder 16 b: Documents of legal proceedings against the Technicum, mainly for non-payment of debts
1933-1939

Browse by Series:

Series 1: Series I: Administrative Records, 1922-1940,
Series 3: Series III: Teachers' and Students' Files, Courses, 1921-1939,
Series 2: Series II: Correspondence, 1922-1940,
All
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