thumb|250px|An exhibit at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv, depicting the meeting of the leaders of the Council of Four Lands

The Council of Four Lands (, ) was the central body of Jewish authority in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the second half of the 16th century to 1764, located in Lublin. The Council's first law is recorded as having been passed in 1580. Seventy delegates from local qehillot met to discuss taxation and other issues important to the Jewish community. The "four lands" were Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Galicia (with Podolia) and Volhynia. The earliest form of the Council was organized in 1514 by Sigismund I the Old and Abraham of Bohemia was put in charge of it.

In Polish it was referred to as the Jewish Sejm (). In Latin it was referred to as the Jewish General Congress (, or ).

The terms "Council of Three Lands" and "Council of Five Lands" and more have also been used for the same body. In 1623 the Jewish communities from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania withdrew from the "Council of Four Lands" and established "the Council of the Land of Lithuania" (Va’ad Medinat Lita, sometimes translated as simply "the Council of Lithuania".

Eliyahu ben Shmuel of Lublin states in the introduction to his book Yad Eliyahu that he remembers attending meetings of the Council of Four Lands as a child. He writes, "During my youth, I was raised among many people of our nation, within the holy community of Lublin. In my days, there was a meeting of scholars, the wise men of Yisrael, during the Gramitz Fairs every year... I imbibed their words thirstily..."

In 1764, the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ordered the discontinuation of Jewish general congresses (Vol. Legum, vii. 50) and the activity of the Council of Four Lands came to an end. The decision was based on the Council's failure to remit the taxes it had collected. The subsequent partition of Poland among Russia, Austria, and Prussia, changing, as it did, the whole qahal system, was unfavorable to the existence of such central autonomous bodies as the Council.

Activity

Its activity may be divided into four branches:

  1. Legislative
  2. Administrative
  3. Judicial
  4. Spiritual and cultural.

See also

  • Vaad

References

  • JewishEncyclopedia.com