‘Masters of their own offerings no more’

Abstract

This chapter investigates the impact of the abolition of the kahal in the Kingdom of Poland from the point of view of Jewish perceptions of how Jewish communities should function within the wider administrative and societal fabric of the state and who should run them after the abolition of the traditional institutions of community government. In the eyes of the leading members of the community, the abolition of the kahal and the introduction of the synagogue supervisory board constituted a serious undermining of the formerly honourable role of community leader. The chapter also shows that there was considerable reluctance to abandon the traditional institutional form of community organisation. All the evidence points to attempts by the major Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Poland to comply with the basic administrative requirements of introducing synagogue supervisory boards, not least in order to make it possible for traditional ḥevrot to continue their activities with as little hindrance as possible. If the synagogue supervisory boards gained in importance and acquired new functions in the course of the nineteenth century, this was, above all, because, in many communities, individuals with integrationist or reformist agendas saw them as a tool to gain leverage in situations where they were greatly outnumbered by the observant majority, as was the case in practically all Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Poland.