The Kehilla during the interwar Lithuanian Republic[edit]

On March 4, 1920, a Law on kehillot was published in Lithuania, in which the kehilla was defined as a body recognized by public law with the right to impose taxes and to issue ordinances dealing with religious matters, education and philanthropy.[3]

Modern Kehillot[edit]

Informally, Kehilla can be an all-encompassing term that refers to the entirety of a Jewish community's religious and secular society,[5] especially in regards to modern Ashkenazi Orthodox neighborhoods.


According to the Talmud, the ten things things a city needs for a Torah scholar to be able to study in it are "[a] court that [punishes] with lashes and punishes [with penalties]; a charity fund, collected by two and distributed by three; a synagogue; a bathhouse; a restroom; a physician; a surgeon; a notary; (a butcher); and a teacher of children."[6]

Jewish Autonomism

National personal autonomy