Ultra-orthodox Israelis move on to tech education

Tel Aviv

A SELF-TAUGHT ultra-orthodox Israeli is breaking with tradition that puts religious study before work to lead his community into an Israeli technology industry starved for skilled workers. Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Alphabet are among companies supporting Moshe Friedman's KamaTech, a venture backed by the US government and private money aimed at getting more ultra-orthodox Jews such as Mr Friedman into Israel's burgeoning technology industry.

Mr Friedman, who wears the white shirt, black suit and black skull cap of ultra-religious Jews, has seen interest in his programme soar: from five haredi (a broad spectrum of groups within orthodox Judaism) entrepreneurs at a community startup event he hosted in 2013 to 1,000 at a Tel Aviv gathering a year ago.