Photograph: Beth din (rabbinical court) (?).

European Jews

Vilna Guberniya

1866

Museum of the Peoples of the USSR

Salt paper print

12,4 x 17,6; 23,7 x 32

РЭМ 8764-21540

The photograph was received from Vilna Statistical Committee. Beth din was a rabbinical court of law guided by Halakha (traditional law) in examining cases. The rabbinical court examined all matters related to the personal status of a Jewish community’s member (conclusion of marriage; property and other disputes), and looked into public issues related to observing the Jewish laws – kashrut, Shabbath, activities of synagogues, appointment of rabbis etc. In the second half of the 19th century, the rabbinical court was gradually losing its importance, especially after the 1860s, the epoch of the “Great Reform” of Alexander II. The photograph was displayed at the Russian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867 in Moscow.