ORT-Farband [farband means union (Yiddish)], the full name is 'World Union of the Societies for the Spreading of Artisan and Agricultural Work among the Jews', the brief name is 'The World ORT Union' – the Jewish Educational and Charitable Organization.

ORT (the Society for the Spreading of Artisan and Agricultural Work among the Jews) was founded in St. Petersburg in 1880. Its aim was to benefit Russian Jews by spreading qualified, professional, and agricultural work among them. This Society was a charitable institution. It existed thanks to the contributions gathered by the Jewish communes in Russia. Following the October Revolution of 1917, ORT had to search for new resources for the financial support of its activity. In 1920 a special delegation was sent abroad to collect funds in Western Europe and in the USA.

In August 1921 ORT-Farband (the World ORT Union) was established at the first ORT international conference in Berlin. During 12 years, Central Administration of the World ORT Union worked in Berlin, but in 1931, with the advent of the Nazis to power, it had to move to Paris where it continued working to 1939.

From 1920 to 1930s ORT-Farband carried on a series of campaigns for the collection of funds that were followed by the arrangement of exhibitions, conferences, and the series of lectures devoted to Jewish life in Eastern Europe and in the USSR.

Thanks to the support of the Jews from all over the World, ORT-Farband had the opportunity to provide significant financial, technical, and consulting assistance for Jews living in the areas belonging to the Russian Empire before World War I. The ORT work was carried out in the Soviet Union and in a number of Eastern European countries:

Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania.

From 1923 to 1938 ORT-Farband played an active role in the Jewish Agricultural Colonization Projects that took place in the USSR: in Belorussia, Ukraine, the Northern Crimea, and later in the Far East. The ORT organizations were involved in professional education of the Jews and promoted the forming of industrial enterprises and agricultural colonies.