Reuters treks out to Mount Gerizim in Samaria in the West Bank to visit with the “guardians of an ancient faith with a cameo role in the Bible.” The Samaritans have 750 surviving followers who employ ”surprisingly modern methods to keep their tiny community alive.”

Internet acquaintances, mail-order brides and pre-nuptial genetic tests have all become familiar to Samaritans trying to plan future generations despite a shortage of young women within their own tight-knit community. Such openness to the outside world seems baffling in a group that considers itself the original Israelites and upholds rigid traditions about diet, sex and the Sabbath. Half of the community lives in the tidy modern village of Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim, the faith’s holy mountain in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the other half lives in the Israeli town of Holon near Tel Aviv.