“We are saving souls”

In order to get accepted to AMIT Menorat Hamaor, the school’s principal, Ilan Hamami, says half-jokingly that prospective students have to answer one question: Do you have a smartphone? If they respond “yes,” he lets them enroll—but not because that means they have access to high-tech gadgets or that they come from well-off families; in fact, it’s the opposite. If they have a smartphone, it shows him that they have begun to stray from their families’ Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) lifestyle.