Kehilla

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Kehilla

A kehilla or kehillah (?????, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
: "community") is a Jewish community

Community

In biological terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment .In human communities, intention, belief, Natural resource, preferences, Need assessment, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the Identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness....
. In pre-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
Europe, all towns or cities with a Jewish population had one communal organisation, or occasionally more. As a result of the dispersal caused by the war, larger agglomerations may have more than one community, each centred around one synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
, with the various communities together providing the services previously run by the kehilla, such as a mikvah
Mikvah

Mikvah is a ritual bath designed for the purpose of ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion. The word "mikvah", as used in the Hebrew Bible, literally means a "collection" - generally, a collection of water....
(immersion pool), gemach
Gemach

Gemach is a Judaism free-loan fund which subscribes to both the positive Torah mitzvah of lending money and the Torah prohibition against charging interest on a loan....
(free-loan fund), and kashrut
Kashrut

Kashrut refers to Judaism Taboo food and drink. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English language, from the Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation of the Hebrew language term kash?r , meaning "fit" ....
(kosher food) supervision.

orically, a kehilla had quasi-governmental authority over both the Jewish community and its relationship with the Gentile

Gentile

The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite tribes or nations in translations of the Bible, most notably the English King James Version.It serves as the Latin and subsequenly English translation of the Hebrew language words ??? and ???? in the Old Testament and the Greek language word ???? in the New Testament....
community.

The system of the kehilla in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
developed from the ashkenazi

Ashkenazi Jews

File:Juden 1881.JPGAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish ethnic divisions of the Rhineland in the west of Germany....
self-government

Self-governance

Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization. It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units, up to and including autonomous regions and aboriginal peoples ....
system.

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Encyclopedia

A kehilla or kehillah (?????, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Community

World War II

Synagogue

Historical usage

Historically, a kehilla had quasi-governmental authority over both the Jewish community and its relationship with the Gentile

Gentile

Poland

Ashkenazi Jews

Self-governance

Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon an individual or Legal person by a state or the functional equivalent of a state.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entity....
for the Polish Government of the time were collected from its members by elected

Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
trustees

Trustee

Trustee is a legal term that refers to a holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary . A Trust law can be set up either to benefit particular persons, or for any Charitable trust : typical examples are a testamentary trust for the testator's children and family, a pension trust , and a charitable trust....
. The trustees were further responsible for the maintenance of various things such as education

Jewish education

Jewish education is the transmission of the tenets, principles and religious laws of Judaism. Due to its emphasis on Torah study, many have commented that Judaism is characterised by "lifelong learning" that extends to adults as much as it does to children....
that were needed for it members to live a Jewish life. In at least some cases the kehillas trustees additionally appointed the rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
.

As a proper name
Located in Palo Alto, California, United States, a Jewish high school by the name of Kehillah Jewish High School
Kehillah Jewish High School

Kehillah Jewish High School is an independent college preparatory high school located in Palo Alto, California. Kehillah is a Hebrew word meaning "community." The school is one of a series of pluralistic Jewish day schools in the United States at the high school level founded within the past 12 years....
exists.

Modern usage
In modern usage, the term "Jewish community" can refer to the Jewish population of a given city or area, particularly when it is centered around a synagogue or synagogues and/or community service organizations such as a Jewish community center
Jewish Community Center

A Jewish Community Center is a general recreational, social clubs and Fraternal and service organizations organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities....
or a Jewish federation
Jewish Federation

A Jewish Federation is a confederation of various Jewish social agencies, volunteer programs, educational bodies, and related organizations, found within most cities in North America that host a viable Jewish community....
. "Jewish community" also may be used in a more abstract sense to refer to the Jewish population of the world; this reflects the sense that "all Jews are responsible for one another," that is, that Jews feel connected to other Jews worldwide regardless of the fact that they may never meet each other.

See also

Aljama
Aljama

Aljama is a Spanish language term of Arabic language origin used in old official documents to designate the self-governing communities of Moors and Jews living under Spain Christian rule....
, Spanish name for a Jewish (or Muslim) community in Medieval Spain, also judería or call.
Jewish ghetto, a neighborhood where Jews lived together.