The Bankruptcy of the Vilnius Jewish Community in the Second Half of the 18th Century. The Structure of the Debts and the Process of their Repayment

Abstract

In the second half of the 18th century, the problem of the indebtedness of the Jewish communities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was identified as one that could not be solved without the intervention of the state, and the resolution of this issue involved accounting the debts incurred by Jewish communities and planning their repayment. The present research is based on primary sources: handwritten accounting documents of Jewish debts in the Treasury Commission of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The focus of the paper is on issues which, although identified in historiography, have not yet been analysed: the structure of the indebtedness of Jewish communities, a social portrait of their lenders, trends in the accounting and administration of the debts, and decisions regarding their speedier repayment. The case of the indebtedness of Vilnius’ Jewish community as an institution is analysed, and shows the extremely complicated situation of the chief-communities of the Lithuanian Vaad (in Hebrew Vaad medinat Lita). The biggest challenge in the research is difficulties separating debts incurred for the needs of the community and debts connected with the chief-community’s position in the Lithuanian Vaad, the main and supreme institution of Jewish self-government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.