Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland in 1693, led by Jakob Ammann, an Anabaptist bishop. Ammann broke from the Swiss Mennonite Anabaptists over the question of whether banned members should be avoided at common meals, not just at communion. Those who followed him became known as the Amish.
As of 2025, approximately 404,575 Old Order Amish live in the United States, with the population present in 32 states. Pennsylvania has the largest state population at about 95,400, followed by Ohio at about 86,300, and Indiana at about 67,300. The Amish population doubles roughly every 20 years.
The Amish reject technology that they believe fosters Hochmut (pride or arrogance) or weakens dependence on the community. Electricity might spark competition for status goods, labor-saving machines reduce the need to rely on neighbors, and photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Each congregation's specific rules are set in the Ordnung, reviewed twice a year by all baptized members.
The Ordnung is the set of rules governing Old Order Amish day-to-day life, covering dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and interaction with outsiders. It differs between districts and is reviewed twice a year by all baptized members. Lord's Supper is held only when all members give their consent to the current Ordnung.
In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Wisconsin could not compel Amish children to attend school past the eighth grade. The case began when Jonas Yoder, Wallace Miller, and Adin Yutzy were each fined five dollars for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. The Court found that the state's interest in universal education did not override the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch at home and in church services, English for reading, writing, school, and business, and Standard German (called Hochdeitsch) for prayers and hymns. Two Swiss Amish subgroups speak forms of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect. The Amish are functionally trilingual, and the three-language structure actively marks boundaries between household, faith, and the outside world.