Sejm Żydów litewskich (1623-1764)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); žydai; Judėjai; žydų savivalda; žydų tribunolas; žydų teisėtvarka; žydų religinis gyvenimas; žydų bendruomenės; Karaimai; Jews; Judaism; Jewish self government; Jewish tribunal; Jewish law system; Jewish religious life; Jewish community; Caraites.

ENThe Council of Lithuanian Jews (the Lithuanian Vaad) was a central representation of Jews in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Vaad broke away from the Jewish representation labeled as the Council of the Four Lands in 1623 due to the duality of the Crown's and Lithuania's fiscal system under which the Lithuanian Jews naturally came under the Lithuanian Treasurer (podskarbi) and paid their poll tax to the Lithuanian treasury (prior to that secession various disputes flared up between the Crown and Lithuanian Jews in which both parties accused each other of an unfair tax allocation). Of some significance were also disputes between the Crown and Lithuanian border communities (mainly between Grodno and Tykocin) about their jurisdiction over neighboring communities and settlements. The organizational structure of the Lithuanian Vaad rested on principal communities. Initially, after the Lithuanian Vaad had become independent, the principal status was enjoyed by 3 communities: Lithuanian Brest, Grodno and Pinsk - a relatively „young" Lithuanian community which was established as late as the beginning of the 16t h century. Later on the principal communities were joined by Vilnius (1664), gradually becoming independent of Brest, and Slutsk (1691) which was supported in its aspirations by the administrators of land owners. [...] The gathering of Jews for the Vaad was beneficial to owners because it animated local economy, especially trade. The Vaad's sessions were to continue for 4 weeks, but later on they were prolonged to 5 and 6 weeks. The Vaad's sessions were attended by the country's seniors and rabbis sent by the principal communities. Smaller communities, districts and settlements also sent their delegates to the Vaad upon a notice by their principal communities, but only in order to deliver the registers of collected taxes, expense accounts and taxpayer registers.The Vaad had its own treasury and accounting books (pinkasim) which were maintained in several copies, one for each principal community. Affiliated with the Vaad was also a court of justice. However, the Lithuanian Vaad's activity was not confined to conventions, but also consisted in the ongoing work of clerks who formed a standing executive body. The Vaad's representatives held regular meetings at the time of major Lithuanian fairs and they also attended the Lublin fairs. The scope of the Lithuanian Vaad's operations was very broad. Apart from state tax allocation and collection, mainly of the poll tax, the council also regulated all issues that were crucial to Jews. The legislation passed by the Vaad pertained to the functioning of community authorities, relations between the principal communities and the communities and settlements under their jurisdiction, judiciary, economic activity, especially lease and lending, Jewish settlement in Lithuania, religious and social issues and also everyday contacts with the Christian population. [...]. The Lithuanian Vaad took a wide range of steps for the benefit of all Lithuanian Jewry - its representatives were active during the nobility's diets and dietins, at the royal court, in non-Jewish tribunals and courts, and at magnates' seats. [...] The convention of the rabbis of principal communities, which acted as the chief rabbinate, also had a broader dimension to it. Apart from adjudicating on urgent conflicts, the rabbis also passed general decisions on religious issues. A significant percentage of measures taken by the Vaad must have stemmed from a sense of threat. On the one hand, it was an internal threat - that religious laws might be violated or abandoned in the lives of Lithuanian Jews that had to live and operate in a non-Jewish world, especially that their settlements were far apart.More imminent, however, was the external threat - that Jews might be ousted from the state, or that their privileges or economic activity could be constrained. Conspicuous in the Lithuanian Vaad's activities is a permanent awareness that the Jewry's status is uncertain, that their expulsion could take place any time or that anti-Jewish sentiments might escalate. [...] Like the Crown Vaad, the Lithuanian Vaad was dissolved during the convocation diet of 1764 under the administrative and fiscal reform. The Lithuanian Vaad's operation was affected by two contradictory trends. On the one hand, it was endangered by such destabilizing factors as, first of all, any tensions between the principal communities and smaller communities opposing their jurisdiction as well as any attempts by the latter to change their status. The Vaad's operation was also affected by stabilizing factors. The most important of them was the above-mentioned ability to provide protection, both for the entire Lithuanian Jewry and for individual Jews. [...] The studies of the Lithuanian Vaad make it possible not only to reproduce the functioning ofthat institution but also have two more general aspects. Firstly, they highlight wider processes and phenomena that developed inside the Jewish community in the 17th and 18th centuries. [...] Such as growing power exercised by oligarchs (narrowing circle of those in authority), increasing tax burdens, changes in the structure of professions pursued by Jews, reconciliation of the requirements of Jewish laws [...]. Secondly, they feature the life of Jews within the structures of the Polish- -Lithuanian Commonwealth where Jews represented a separate estate and had their own central authorities which took efficient steps to provide the Jewish Population with safety and good living conditions. [...]. [From the publication]

• Vadyba / Management
• Istorija / History