https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sudn5HTEQI
Good morning, everyone. Deans, members of our university’s faculty, representatives of partner institutions, Friends of ORT, dear graduates, and your families. We are delighted to share this special occasion with you.
Graduating as a professional requires skill and dedication. It requires learning to delay gratification, to work as a team, and to reaffirm or redefine your career paths. It requires leaving behind the high school students you once were and transforming into college students who are more responsible, more independent, and more mature. It requires determination and resilience in the face of inevitable setbacks. You have lived up to your own expectations and those of the people who believed in you. You can be proud!
We thank you for the opportunity to have taught you. When one teaches, two learn. Our mission is not merely to teach you professional skills. Our role as a university is to prepare you to learn, to make your own independent decisions, to be critical and self-critical, and to articulate your goals and ambitions while understanding what is at stake for you and those around you. As the great Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, once said: “The most important contribution a teacher can make to a student is to help them find their own voice.” That is our mission, and we hope we have fulfilled it.
Next year, ORT will celebrate its 140th anniversary. ORT is an institution, a project, and an idea. It is the idea that people must be self-reliant in order to live a dignified life, and that to achieve that self-reliance, they need, above all else, education. That is why, although ORT takes different forms in every country and in every era, its spirit remains the same: to provide a quality education that enables people to lead dignified and independent lives.
We are proud of our achievements throughout our history, but our focus is on the future. We don’t know—and no one knows—what the future will hold, but whatever it may be, at ORT Uruguay we are committed to doing our very best to continue providing the best possible education to the people of Uruguay.
ORT is a Jewish institution that has always been open to everyone. Many cultures and religions have contributed to our civilization, each in its own way and from its own perspective. One of Judaism’s most significant contributions is the immense respect it accorded to teachers in an ancient era dominated by gods, kings, and generals.
The best example is the transformation of Moses, who, at the end of his 40-year journey through the desert, learns that he has reached the gates of the Promised Land but will not be able to enter. After a 40-year journey, reaching the gates and being unable to enter could naturally have caused Moses to become bitter or rebellious, but in reality, he decided to transform himself from a political leader into a teacher. He realized that he could not physically accompany his people to the Promised Land, but that his teachings would do so.
And for a month, he gathered the people daily to prepare them by telling them stories and teaching them the laws, preparing them for the surprising reality that slavery is difficult, but that freedom is even more challenging, and especially to urge them to become a nation of educators. This emphasis on education is one of the most significant and original contributions of ancient Judaism.
Graduation has traditionally marked the end of the learning phase, but it will increasingly lose that meaning, because the rapid obsolescence of knowledge will make us all lifelong learners. As long as there is life, there must be learning, and only as long as there is learning will there be an active life.
As the great Isaac Asimov, who could see into the future, said and predicted: “Education is not something one can ever finish.” You must prepare yourselves to live in a society of lifelong learning, in which people will no longer just have to be educated but will have to be capable of learning. A society in which learning will take place throughout life, everywhere, and at all times. You will acquire some knowledge before you have to use it, some while you are using it, and some you will have to generate yourselves. It will be a paradigm shift from the traditional sequence of “I learn, and then I apply.”
We don’t know what this world of fleeting knowledge, ever-changing technology, and continuous learning will look like, but we do know that we will all have to learn and keep learning continuously. And that is why I want you to know, on behalf of Universidad ORT Uruguay, that our commitment to you did not end today; it begins today.
Think of yourselves as capable of achieving anything you set your minds to. What you think about yourselves will shape your future. Don’t limit your expectations of yourselves, and don’t let others limit them. No one knows your potential—your capacity to develop your intelligence and creativity—not even you yourselves. Only personal effort and the constant cultivation of your skills will reveal just how far you can go. Don’t strive to seek the approval of others; be the most demanding of yourselves. Don’t hide your weaknesses or flaunt your strengths; your weaknesses are opportunities for improvement, and your strengths are stepping stones to surpassing yourselves.
Don’t be discouraged by failures, which are inevitable. Infallibility is divine, but resilience is human. We cannot aspire to never fail, because failure is inevitable for anyone who takes risks, but we can aspire to develop our ability to bounce back and move forward.
Form your own views and express your opinions with vigor and confidence, but always listen to others. Disagree without disparaging, debate without alienating, because through dialogue we acknowledge the existence of others, and others acknowledge us. Always debate in search of the truth, not to defeat or discredit your opponent. It takes courage to speak, but much more courage to listen—especially to those people and opinions that challenge our beliefs.
Remember that those who know how to listen can hear what is left unsaid. Absolute truth rarely exists; we must consider others’ perspectives, see others as they see themselves, and try to understand how others see us. Those who believe they hold the whole truth assume that others are lying or ignorant, and that it is therefore pointless to listen to them; in this way, we isolate ourselves in an “us versus them” or “them against us” paradigm.
Always set ambitious goals—goals that challenge you—and surround yourself with friends, partners, and colleagues from whom you can learn and who aren’t afraid to tell you what they really think.
Remember that your life is not a race toward success; it is a quest for personal fulfillment. We all seek to transcend ourselves, and for that, our lives must have a purpose—a sense of challenge, spiritual satisfaction, and contribution. We all have reasons to live, but discovering them requires a deep search. These searches lead us to ask ourselves questions without answers, yet they are essential for reflecting on why we do what we do, or why we want what we want.
We reach our full potential when what we want to do aligns with what needs to be done, when what motivates us contributes to and benefits others. As Viktor Frankl, the renowned psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz, said, “We must not ask only what we want from life, but what life wants from us.”
Remember that, as part of Uruguay’s most educated minority, you have special responsibilities. Do not allow our society to fall apart. Democracy and progress require social cohesion, common values, and shared aspirations. Neither divisions nor walls should be part of Uruguayan culture.
Unfortunately, part of our national discourse does not build community but rather isolated islands that hear one another but do not listen, look at one another but do not see. We do not see those we are speaking with, nor do we hear what they are saying; we only see our preconceived images of them and only hear what our prejudices tell us we are going to hear. Debates seem like monologues, and exchanges seem like rituals. We pay a high price for this fragmentation. The lack of real discussion prevents bad ideas from being exposed and good ideas from replacing them.
Try to view the world through your senses, not through your prejudices. This will enable us, as Uruguayans, to make better choices about our path forward, based on reality rather than on fantasies or utopian ideals.
Soon we will have to elect new leaders for our country. Our greatest challenge as a society will be to define our aspirations, because a united society is built on a consensus regarding its overarching goals and what citizens are willing to sacrifice to achieve them. We must vote for those who best represent our aspirations for progress. Our goal cannot be to return to the 1950s or to simply replicate what other countries have done.
Uruguay has a tremendous opportunity for development in the knowledge society. It no longer matters that we are a small or remote country, because an intelligent and educated nation knows no bounds in the age of knowledge. We can thrive through our intelligence and creativity; we can produce and export knowledge, technology, and innovation—the great sources of wealth in the 21st century.
That is why, if that is our vision, the enormous effort to attract massive industrial plants—which represent the development models of the last century—to our country is controversial, not because they are a bad investment—I don’t know—but because they represent a flawed vision for those who aspire to an innovative, technologically advanced, and entrepreneurial country. I believe they stem from a lack of imagination and from settling for limited ambitions.
I believe we should be a small country with big dreams, and we shouldn't be afraid of those dreams. Dreaming isn't the opposite of taking action; dreams are the precursors to great projects.
Remember that the threat in this new world is not free trade, immigrants, or robots. The threat in this new world is ignorance. Ignorance is the great barrier we must overcome in the 21st century. There are no shortcuts to overcoming it, nor euphemisms to disguise it. An ignorant nation cannot be free. To neglect our education is to neglect our freedom and our prosperity. An ignorant nation is dominated by charlatans and demagogues. It is not our possessions that will propel us into the future, but what we do to cultivate the intelligence and potential of our young people.
The vast majority of Uruguayans do not hold—and will never hold—a college degree. This limits the future prospects of these young people, prevents us from thriving as a society, and is one of the major obstacles to our becoming a developed country. Everyone who aspires to lead us in the future must address this existential challenge.
Dear graduates, this is a moment to remember and cherish. It is a time to congratulate yourselves and thank those who have supported you. One chapter is ending, and new ones are beginning. Find your own path, but never lose sight of the fact that you are members of society. Remember that a society is stronger when it supports the weakest, richer when it supports the poorest, and wiser when it educates all its citizens.
Remember that Uruguay was, is, and must continue to be a great country, and to achieve that, it needs its best-educated young people. Succeed from Uruguay and help your country succeed. Find your own path, but know that ORT will always be your home.
Thank you very much.