[Students learning metalwork techniques, Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor (ORT), Marseille, France]

Founded in Russia in 1880, the Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor (ORT) provided Jews with vocational training and education. By the 1930s, ORT was assisting Jewish refugees and hopeful émigrés in circumventing visa restrictions by providing training in fields that were desirable to host countries. In 1933, ORT moved its European headquarters from Berlin to Paris, just as a large number of German-Jewish refugees were migrating to France after the establishment of the Third Reich. The ORT school in Marseille was in its infancy when Vishniac was hired to document its efforts on behalf of refugees. Today, ORT continues its educational mission, with particular focus on Jewish communities in Latin America, the former USSR, and Israel.