title: Organizations and Institutions
Creators: name: Liedtke, Rainer
Publisher: name: Institute for the History of the German Jews
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Organizations and Institutions

description: SUMMARY In premodern Europe, Jews, like everyone else, were able to survive not as individuals, but only as part of a group. As members of a religious minority, they especially had to create structures organizing and securing their existence. From the beginning of Jewish settlements in the German-speaking territories in the 10th century to the present day the congregation was and continues to be the central form of organization among Jews, even if its specific shape and especially its importance for Jewish life have changed dramatically over the centuries. Congregations traditionally supervised not only religious rites but nearly all aspects of their members’ daily lives such as schooling and charity or cultural activities, for example. Congregations also represented their members externally as quasi-political organizations. They were often given a certain degree of legal autonomy by local rulers or city governments, primarily with regard to jurisdiction over internal community matters. To a certain extent they were able to provide their members with protection from an environment which until well into the 19th century was mostly hostile towards Jews. As early as the Middle Ages, various institutions indispensable for Jewish daily life emerged within the Jewish congregations, who did not form any significant networks until the 19th century. Apart from synagogues, these were schools offering religious education (Talmud schools) and ritual bath houses (mikveh). Some congregation members, usually the wealthier ones, soon began forming organizations devoted mostly to charitable causes, but also to religious rite. The most significant ones in this context were the burial societies (chevra kadisha) whose mission included ensuring that poor members of the congregation received a funeral in accordance with Jewish rites. Furthermore, in many places there were associations which awarded stipends to poor Talmud school students, provided for penniless Jews passing through their community or supported the congregation’s widows and orphans. Another important role of early Jewish associations was to support girls without means willing to marry by providing them with a dowry. Moreover, each congregation usually kept a charity fund overseen by its warden or, in the case of larger congregations, by men specifically elected to this office. In the non-Jewish premodern world, many of these tasks were fulfilled either by urban or rural community governments or centrally by the Christian churches. By contrast Jewish institutions and organizations were organized in a much less centralist manner. They were active only on the level of their respective congregation. Overall Jewish organizations not only regulated the daily life of the congregation, they also were indispensable for Jewish life in general. Where there was no religious instruction, where Jewish brides were unable to marry for financial reasons or where poor Jews were not taken care of, Jewish existence in general was directly threatened. There simply was no alternative to the Jews getting organized and looking after their own. For if Christian churches, for example, offered charitable support to Jews, they invariably sought to convert the beneficiaries.