ࡱ> +-* bjbj * ! '~-----$GH--nnnF--nnnn-$C Nn0'nd nn$nn' : The Jewish kehilla (local community) in Early Modern Central Europe Henry J. Cohn, University of TV From about the tenth until the eighteenth centuries the Ashkenazi Jews (of German origin) in the Holy Roman Empire and Poland-Lithuania had as their grassroots self-governing institution the kehilla or community. It performed many functions of a religious and secular nature similar to those of the European parish, but also to some degree those of merchant and craft gilds, religious brotherhoods, charitable institutions and, especially in Poland, municipal councils. The main differences between the two types of institution arose from the nature of religious doctrine and practice and the different roles of the rabbi and the priest. Prominent among the tasks of the kehilla's elected and appointed officials was collecting taxes for central and municipal governments. Led by the rabbis, they also passed legislation and exercised justice in matters solely concerning Jews. The local communities also provided the bedrock and the model for elected regional and national Jewish councils which negotiated with the rulers and their Estates in Brandenburg-Prussia and Poland-Lithuania about taxes, economic and religious privileges, and the security of the Jews. Once absolutist states took over the fiscal administration and more of the judicial authority over their Jewish subjects in the decades before the French Revolution, the regional and national councils were abolished and the local communities reverted to a more 'parochial' role. The wider significance of this pyramid of elected but oligarchic institutions and of the kehilla alone, where nothing above it existed, was twofold. It helped to integrate Jews to some extent into the political and economic life of Europe already in the centuries before the Enlightenment and French Revolution which have been traditionally held to mark the beginnings of modernity for Jews. It also was one of the factors which allowed the Jews to survive for two thousand years in Europe, and indeed in the communities of Sephardic Jews on the other side of the Atlantic, in an often hostile environment and without a state or a country of their own.  Ejkl+ 2  gn he[\6]hXhe[\he[\56\] he[\5\ DEjkldhgdX $dha$gdX(. A!n"n#n$n% ^ 666666666vvvvvvvvv66666686666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666hH6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666662 0@P`p2( 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p 0@P`p8XV~_HmH nH sH tH R`R Normal*$1$$CJKHPJ^J_H9aJmH sH tH9DA D Default Paragraph FontViV 0 Table Normal :V 44 la (k ( 0No List NN Heading x$OJQJCJPJ^JaJ6B6 Body Text x(/( List^JH""H Caption xx $CJ6^JaJ].2. Index $^JPK![Content_Types].xmlj0Eжr(΢Iw},-j4 wP-t#bΙ{UTU^hd}㨫)*1P' ^W0)T9<l#$yi};~@(Hu* Dנz/0ǰ $ X3aZ,D0j~3߶b~i>3\`?/[G\!-Rk.sԻ..a濭?PK!֧6 _rels/.relsj0 }Q%v/C/}(h"O = C?hv=Ʌ%[xp{۵_Pѣ<1H0ORBdJE4b$q_6LR7`0̞O,En7Lib/SeеPK!kytheme/theme/themeManager.xml M @}w7c(EbˮCAǠҟ7՛K Y, e.|,H,lxɴIsQ}#Ր ֵ+!,^$j=GW)E+& 8PK!Ptheme/theme/theme1.xmlYOo6w toc'vuر-MniP@I}úama[إ4:lЯGRX^6؊>$ !)O^rC$y@/yH*񄴽)޵߻UDb`}"qۋJחX^)I`nEp)liV[]1M<OP6r=zgbIguSebORD۫qu gZo~ٺlAplxpT0+[}`jzAV2Fi@qv֬5\|ʜ̭NleXdsjcs7f W+Ն7`g ȘJj|h(KD- dXiJ؇(x$( :;˹! I_TS 1?E??ZBΪmU/?~xY'y5g&΋/ɋ>GMGeD3Vq%'#q$8K)fw9:ĵ x}rxwr:\TZaG*y8IjbRc|XŻǿI u3KGnD1NIBs RuK>V.EL+M2#'fi ~V vl{u8zH *:(W☕ ~JTe\O*tHGHY}KNP*ݾ˦TѼ9/#A7qZ$*c?qUnwN%Oi4 =3ڗP 1Pm \\9Mؓ2aD];Yt\[x]}Wr|]g- eW )6-rCSj id DЇAΜIqbJ#x꺃 6k#ASh&ʌt(Q%p%m&]caSl=X\P1Mh9MVdDAaVB[݈fJíP|8 քAV^f Hn- "d>znNJ ة>b&2vKyϼD:,AGm\nziÙ.uχYC6OMf3or$5NHT[XF64T,ќM0E)`#5XY`פ;%1U٥m;R>QD DcpU'&LE/pm%]8firS4d 7y\`JnίI R3U~7+׸#m qBiDi*L69mY&iHE=(K&N!V.KeLDĕ{D vEꦚdeNƟe(MN9ߜR6&3(a/DUz<{ˊYȳV)9Z[4^n5!J?Q3eBoCM m<.vpIYfZY_p[=al-Y}Nc͙ŋ4vfavl'SA8|*u{-ߟ0%M07%<ҍPK! ѐ'theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.relsM 0wooӺ&݈Э5 6?$Q ,.aic21h:qm@RN;d`o7gK(M&$R(.1r'JЊT8V"AȻHu}|$b{P8g/]QAsم(#L[PK-![Content_Types].xmlPK-!֧6 +_rels/.relsPK-!kytheme/theme/themeManager.xmlPK-!Ptheme/theme/theme1.xmlPK-! ѐ' theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.relsPK]    8@0(  B S  ? lp+2 gnlAe[\BX@llNllX@UnknownG* Times New Roman5Symbol3. * ArialO.  k9?Lucida Sans Unicode5. *aTahomaA BCambria Math"A hFdь&HTHT! r02 XB!xx Henry CohnhyscdOh+'0l   ( 4 @LT\d Henry CohnNormalhyscd3Microsoft Office Word@G@b$@.Jk@@7C HT՜.+,0 hp  University of TV  Title  !#$%&'(),Root Entry FH.C .1Table WordDocument*SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8"CompObjy  F'Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q