Pray for Our Children  

In a repurposed start-up hub in Tel Aviv, some of Israel’s most creative minds have mobilized to battle for the captives held in Hamas’s tunnels. As religious engagement with the hostages’ families grows, one request repeats itself again and again

There’s a definite start-up vibe about the operation at 13 Leonardo Da Vinci Street in Tel Aviv. Bean-bag-equipped lounges and coffee machines abound. There are the twenty-somethings working on laptops in the open work spaces, scrawled daily targets in English on the whiteboards behind them. Divided into teams responsible for everything from data to social media and graphics, their functions are described by handwritten signs that flap in the breeze created by purposeful foot traffic.

But what’s happening over the building’s nine floors a stone’s throw from the likes of Google is a tragic parody of a tech start-up.

For a start, the organization’s heads have a singular long-term aim: “We want to shut down before we figure out how to run this,” says entrepreneur Amos Pikal.

Here at these former offices of the kibbutz movement turned tech hub, there are no dreams of big bucks in stock options. Instead, the ultimate exit is measured in lives — 241 of them, to be precise.