Roots-Key Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles Spring 2003 Kahal and Vaad Jewish Community and World By Edmund Cohler
As genealogical researchers, we try to understand our public endeavors, roads, military protection, wars, in- historical heritage and the world of our ancestors. If terstate relations, palaces and other governmental we read, even the least bit, about the past, going be- buildings. However, corporate societies overlaid this yond the ancestry charts and lineages, we encounter political map in a third dimension, each corporation the holy communities (kehillot kedosh), kahals, ghet- with its own layer. Within a layer there might be some tos, shtetls, shtetlach, and other divisions which geographic division but it might or might not coincide brought sighs of nostalgia from our grandparents and with the reigning political divisions. notice in landsmanshaftn and literature of their For example, unlike the time. They embodied the present world where the concept of Jewish Com- law has the same munity that developed in boundaries as the politi- the Diaspora since antiq- cal map, each layer in uity. So what were these the corporate world had communities? What did its own laws, its own or- they mean to our ances- ganization, and its own tors and what did they functions. Within this leave as an inheritance corporate world, guilds, in our time of One associations of a reli- World? gious nature, military organizations, and other groups with a charter could The Jewish Communities had great similarities through- provide their own laws and their own social organization out the world but most of our ancestors lived on the for almost anything they wanted as long as it didnt con- remains of a great European state - the Polish/Lithuanian flict with the rulers interest. This arrangement is looked Commonwealth, eventually called the Pale of Settle- on today as hopelessly crude, unfair, stultifying and re- ment. So let me describe a little of the history of that pressive but it was the norm of that era, and was place that gave birth to a system of Jewish Communi- accorded the imprimaturs of religions, rulers, wealth, ties that was our ancestors heritage. My tale of history, privilege, custom, universities and arms. This system political geography and demography is drawn with a had great stability. Even today, we are wrestling through- broad brush that may mask some details and distort out the world with the problem of separating religious others; so, please pardon my imprecision. corporations and their underlying states.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Commonwealth Jews were routinely excluded from almost all of the had become an enormous state of wealth, power, and corporate layers. It was in this world that the Com- intellect, and home to the largest population of Jews monwealth relegated a corporate layer of their own to in the world. The state, emerging from the Middle Ages, the Jews. A small unit of the Jewish society was the had to be organized to support wealth, public en- kahal, a Polish form of the Hebrew, kehillah kedosh deavor, and custom. Reigning organizations were (holy community). It wasnt necessarily the smallest legally primitive and essentially geographical, two-di- unit on the political map. The shtetl of Leckava, mensional, like a political map in an atlas. Lithuanian, in which my mother and her parents were born, was part of the Vieksniai kahal that covered three That map included many divisions of varying extent, towns: Leckava, Vieksniai and Tirksliai. At times there some of which were included in others: Duchies, Es- were disputes as to which Kahal a shtetlach should tates, Cities, Counties, Provinces, Principalities, report. During the period of the Commonwealth the Palatinates, Governments, and Districts. Terms and kahals governmental functions were pervasive: titles differed in place and time. The governors of such As far as the Commonwealth was concerned, the political divisions concerned themselves mainly with kahal was primarily responsible for the payment of
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taxes to the Government. In this role, it appointed tax as chief justice (av beth din). To paraphrase George assessors (shammaim) and tax collectors (gabbaiei Gobel, a comedian of some note a few years back, hamas) but the kahals responsibility and authority this court made all of the little decisions - contracts, within the membership was actually much broader. marriage, divorces, disputes, properties, questions of The Kahal perpetuated itself through elections, of religious observance - while the Government made varying honesty and exclusivity. The democratic ide- all the big decisions - should the Government, or als of including the poor or the uneducated had not should it not, go to war with Sweden? made their morality felt in that era. Even in the latter All life and death cycles were provided by the days of the kahal, in the mid 19th century, being an kahals. Cemetery (beth olim), burial society (chevra elector meant that you were a person of importance kadisha), hospital (beth cholim), visitors to the sick in the kahal. The overseers of the kahal were vari- (bikkurcholim), homeless shelter (hekdeish), orphan- ously titled rosh (headman), parnas (alderman), age (beth yetomim), food, money, clothing and neeman (trustee), gabbai (supervisor), etc. You may education for the poor (talmud torah) as well as provi- note that there are many Jews today who still bear sions for dowlerless brides (hakhnasat kallah). these titles as surnames. These surnames were cho- The importance of small business was recognized sen, generally in the 19th century to show pride for by the establishment of loan societies (gemilut having the honor of being a Community official. chasidim). The actions of this board of aldermen were re- A proper butcher(shochet) for kosher meats was corded in pinkasim (often described as minutes but provided. going beyond the simple record of meetings). Pinkasim Kahals even decided what you could wear mean- recorded elections, expenditures, resolves, the mem- ing what was or was not a disgrace to the people bership in the Community and meetings of the kahal (shande far menshen). board as well as the transactions of the various orga- Rabbinic representation to broader districts of the nizations subordinate to the kahal. The secretary Jewish Society was provided. There was a more-or- (sofer) of the kahal kept the minutes. These docu- less hierarchal arrangement among the important ments still exist for a few kahals and are wonderful rabbis, at times officially set up and recognized. Thus, historic records illustrating the motivations, machin- a rabbi could be the chief rabbi for a district, a prov- ery and methods of local Jewish existence. Their ince or even an entire land. The legal decisions of a genealogical value is more spotty. There are, at times, local rabbi could be appealed to higher authority within lists of members of organizations (chevroth) for burial, the Jewish society. The supreme court of Judaism for charity, for reading the Talmud and for various other was the Council of the Four Lands and the Council of jobs. They rarely concerned family relations. Lithuania. This Council (or these Councils) met once The kahal provided for the religion by building a every year or so in conjunction with one of the Jewish synagogue and by approving the formation of other commercial fairs held in large centers like Brest, synagogues, and by hiring a chief rabbi for the Com- Litovsk or Lublin. munity. It also provided for a cantor (chazzan) Thus, the kahal was not only very powerful locally sometimes called sholiach tsibur which was abbrevi- but it could represent interests across the whole of ated to shotz another surname source. Other the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth (the largest synagogue functionaries included the sexton country in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. It (shammash) as well as invited outside preachers provided a basis for commercial access beyond the (maggidim). political borders of the local potentate, which not even Education was supported by the kahals by build- a powerful local official could provide. ing religious schools providing primary (cheder) and advanced (yeshiva ) education for boys and in later Nor was the power of the kahal only symbolic. The days also for girls. In sponsoring the various groups courts had the authority for punishments - fines, pro- (chevroth) for study of literature and law, a study room hibitions, incarcerations and even excommunication (beth ha-midrash) for such activities was provided. as well as favors - charity, awards, contracts, and A legal system was provided by recognizing the licenses. In our time, it is hard to imagine an indepen- authority of Jewish Laws (halakhoth) and administer- dent government of such significant powers overlaying ing this justice through a court (beth din) and judges the sovereign state. But, there it was. This represented (dayyanim) who reported to the chief rabbi in his role the status of the Jewish Communities of the Polish/
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Lithuanian Commonwealth for perhaps 200 years. with the war (Napoleons campaign), subsequent peace and successive uprisings in the former Polish However, in the late 17th century and the entire 18th territories. The result was to weaken and abolish the century, a variety of factors conspired to enervate and Kahals as units with any functions other than punitive fragment the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over taxation, conscription and restriction. the last half of the 18th century, it fell apart. Its cen- tral and northern parts were acquired by the Russian The Kahal, in the Warsaw Government (a Russian Empire. Lithuania, the classic enemy of the Musco- province), was first officially abolished in 1821. The vites, was thoroughly crumpled into a new set of anti-semites inveighed against it continually through political divisions, none of whose names included the 1830s, 1840s and in 1844 the Tsar abolished it Lithuania. The Russian Empire accorded the dubious again but for all the Russias. Nevertheless, it persisted honor of naming to Poland by allowing one of its parts, mainly as a vehicle for oppression of the Jews rather the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, to retain the name for a than their protection. For example, in 1850 the Kahal brief period as a political subdivision in the Empire. elders were held personally responsible for capturing conscriptees and providing them to the Russian Army One might imagine that in such times, there would be (for conversion and other training). If they failed in great pressures that might destroy the kahal system their quota they were themselves conscripted. with its underlying political map being upset under it. And truly, the economic and political troubles of these In 1834, the Tax Census (Reviski Skaska) was still ac- times, often led to physical or political attacks on Jews complished by Kahal authorities and it was so stated and made the kahal an even more important source on the census form. By the census of 1858, the census of cohesion, protection and sustenance for the Jew- was divided into Jewish Communities (obshchestvos, a ish population, strengthening it rather than weakening Russian word with the same meaning) but these still it. However, it led to an impoverished and embattled constituted much the same divisions. The Kahal was state for these Communities. now attacked by Jew and Gentile alike, by the former for its oppressive conscription and taxation and by the So just before the dawn of the new 19th century, the latter because of its competition in both the religious Jew-free Russian Empire suddenly found itself as sov- and commercial fields. Jacob Brafman, a Jew who ereign to the largest Jewish society in the world. This had escaped the Minsk Kahals conscription, wrote a was at a time when the martial songs of revolution were book accusing Kahals of an evil conspiracy to con- still being heard from France, which was creating a new vert Christians and to take over the world. This was empire under Napoleon, and the new United States of an early version of the Protocols of Zion that is the America was heard from afar as a whisper of a fear- major literature in the Moslem world today. In 1866, some fate for the Monarchies of old. At such time, the his book was used as a basis for the Governments Russians were in no mood to antagonize this newly ac- continuing repressive attitude towards the Jews. Thus, quired Jewish population and bring forth its yearnings the evils and the past glories of the Kahal were well for political equality. With little forethought, they just con- imprinted on the minds of our grandparents. tinued to maintain the feudal arrangement of the Jewish corporation based on the Kahals. This is my story of the Kahal and what it might have meant to our ancestors. As with every story teller, I At the same time, the autonomy afforded to Jews by have a point of view: Jews are my heroes, albeit at the Kahal system continued to be opposed by the times tragic. In fact, Brafman (the no-goodnik) used Christians and petit-bourgeois who were fearful and the pinkas of the Minsk Kahal for the first half of the contemptuous of Jews and Judaism. They were joined 19th century as the basis for his book. now by a Russian sovereignty that was even more anti-semitic. This oppressive atmosphere worsened Edmund Cohler, genealogist, hobbyist 20 years; Computer/engineer. Litvak SIG.Lexington, MA. For more information For better, more complete and more astute tellers of this story see 1) The article on Community in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2) History of the Jews in Russia and Poland by Simon M. ( I. Friedlander, tr.), The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, which is well indexed.
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Examples of Kahal Records in Belarus Districts Archive: Brest Oblast Archives Document Type: Brest Kahal/Jewish Com Search Databases at Routes to Roots - Miriam Weiner: Year List: 19281939 (Jewish Religious Community Board
Latvia SIG
Latvia is a small country and, although in 1561 Poland took Livonia and Latgale, Kurland was an independent Duchy. As they were ruled by differ- ent people, the history of the Jews from then on was differ- ent in the three Provinces. Courland was never in the Pale of Settlement. Vidzeme (Riga) along with Courland was the nucleus of Latvian Jewry. Courland.[Kurland] was West of the Dvina (Daugava) river. Vidzeme (Livonia), including Riga is north of the Dvina (Daugava ) River bordered north by Estonia and west by the Gulf of Riga. Latgale is east of the Dvina (Daugava) . The three Latgalian districts Ludza (Lutsin), Rezekne (Rezhica) and Daugavpils (Dvinsk, Dunaburg). were, after 1802, Vitebsk province (gubernia). The first Independent Repub- lic of Latvia was proclaimed in 1918 and Jews were granted civil rights for the first time.
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