Qahal

For other uses of Qahal and similar spellings, see Kahal (disambiguation).

The qahal (Hebrew: קהל), sometimes spelled kahal, was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible,[1] and an Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe (France, Germany, Italy). This was adopted in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries) and its successor states, with an elected council of laymen, the kahal, at the helm of each kehila.[2] This institution was exported also further to the east as Jewish settlement advanced.[2] In Poland it was abolished in 1822,[2] and in most of the Russian Empire in 1844.[3]

  1. ^ This article incorporates text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica article "assembly", a publication now in the public domain. See columns 345-6.
  2. ^ a b c Rabinovitch, Simon (2016) [2014]. "Self-Government and Autonomy in Jewish History: An Overview". Jewish Rights, National Rites: Nationalism and Autonomy in Late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford University Press. pp. 23–29. ISBN 978-0804793032. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  3. ^ Lederhendler, Eli (2008). The Decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Kahal (Summary). Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-904-11378-2. Retrieved 30 November 2021 – via Cambridge University Press website. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)