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All eight of the centers, which are being established by the ORT network with $1.6 million in funding from U.S. philanthropists, will be operating within the next year, according to Gideon Meyer, deputy director general of the World ORT Union.

The project, called Regeneration 2000, marks a collaboration between those who wish to contribute to the ongoing Jewish renaissance in the former Soviet Union and those, particularly in Israel, who argue that Jews there should be encouraged to leave.

"There is no contradiction between helping those Jews who wish to leave as well as those Jews who see a future in these countries," said Mark Levin, executive director of National Council of Soviet Jewry: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia.

The schools hope to enroll 10,000 students by the end of 2001, Meyer said.

ORT operates four schools in the former Soviet Union. The organization, which was founded in Russia in 1880, also works with 22 other Jewish schools there.