rtant communities (kahals), to which a number of smaller
ones (prikahalki) were subservient. These, known as the Jewish
Assemblies (zbori zhidovskiye), met at stated intervals. As in our
federal Government, the administrative, executive, and legislative
departments were kept distinct, and those who presided over them
(roshim) were elected annually by ballot. These roshim, or elders,
served by turns for periods of one month each. The rabbi of each
community was the chief judge, and was assisted by several inferior
judges (dayyanim). For matters of importance there were courts of appeal
established in Ostrog and Lemberg, the former having jurisdiction over
Volhynia and the Ukraine, the latter over the rest of Jewish
Russo-Poland. For inter-kahal litigation, there was a supreme court, the
Wa'ad Arba' ha-Arazot (the Synod of the Four Countries), which held its
sessions during the Lublin fair in winter and the Yaroslav fair in
summer. In cases affecting Jews and Gentiles, a decision was given by
the _judex Judaeorum_, who held his office by official appointment of
the grand duke.

So far their system of self-government appears almost a prototype of our
own. The same is true of their municipal administration. The rabbi, who
had the deciding vote in case of a dead-lock, stood in the same relation
to them as the mayor holds to us, only that his term of office,
nominally limited to three years, was actually for life or during good
behavior. Yet the power vested in him was only delegated power. A number
of selectmen, or aldermen, guarded the rights of the community with the
utmost jealousy, and tolerated no innovation, unless previously
sanctioned by them. There were also several honorary offices, with a
one-year tenure, which none could fill who had not had experience in an
inferior position. The chief duties attached to these offices were to
appraise the amount of taxation, pay the salaries of the rabbi, his
dayyanim, and the teachers of the public schools, provide for the poor,
and, above all, intercede with the Government.[38]

Still more interesting and, for our purpose, more important were their
public and private institutions of learning. Jews have always been noted
for the solicitous care they exercise in the education of the young. The
Slavonic Jews surpassed their brethren of other countries in this
respect. At times they wrenched the tender bond of parental love in
their ardor for knowledge. With a republican form of