Who wields the power? The Kahal and Chevrot in Vilna at the begining of the 19th century

ENThe study of the history of the Jewish community in Vilna, and as a matter of fact of Lithuania in the 19lh century, took a great leap forward once the Lithuanian National State Archive became available to scholars some years ago. Documents in this archive depict social-organizational activities pertaining to several foci of power in the 19th century in addition to the "Kahal" which was the official body and the various Associations acting on its behalf and by its authority. Due to the processes of urbanization, the extent and the intensity of the activities of the "Kahal" grew to a very large extent at the beginning of the 19th century. The community files from the first quarter of the 19th century contain thousands of certificates given by the "Kahal" in response to the demands of the authorities in diverse concerns such as taxes, commerce and formal registration. In each of the years 1817 and 1818 the "Kahal" received between three hundred and four hundred requests to grant passports for travelling out of the city or out of the state. Each request contained documents concerning the purpose of the trip, its length, its destination, etc. and the reception of such a passport depended on the approval of the "Kahal." The necessity for renewed registration at the beginning of 1825 created an influx of requests for that purpose, some of which were connected to citizens who were absent at the time and the investigation of whose cases was extremely time consuming. In addition to functioning as a mediating body between the community and the government, the "Kahal" also functioned as a channel for transmitting various kinds of information from the authorities to the community members [p. 354-355].

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• Parašo ir vardinio įrašo tyrimo problemos rašysenos ekspertizėje identifikuojant asmenį. Jurisprudencija. 2004, Nr. 53 (45), p. 65-70.