Ma'amad or Mahamad ( he, מעמד) was Council of Elders (or "the board of directors") of the communities of

Sephardi Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

( Spanish-Portuguese Jews) corresponding to ''

qahal The ''qahal'' ( he, קהל) was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible. See column345-6 The Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe ...

'' of the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

. Ma'amad was described as extremely conservative and authoritarian. Gotthard Deutsch, Max Schloessinger
MAHAMAD (more correctly MA'AMAD
from ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

'' In

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

(

Ta'an ''Ta'anit'' or ''Taanis'' ( he, תַּעֲנִית) is a volume (or "tractate") of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and both Talmuds. In Judaism these are the basic works of rabbinic literature. The tractate of Ta'anit is devoted chiefly to the fast-days ...

. 15b:3), the term referred to the "members of the priestly watch" in charge of the Temple service. The Council consisted of four wardens (''parnassim'') and a treasurer (''

gabbai A ''gabbai'' ( he, גבאי), also known as ''shamash'' (, sometimes spelled ''shamas'') or warden ( UK, similar to churchwarden) is a beadle or sexton, a person who assists in the running of synagogue services in some way. The role may be und ...

''), and its members were elected, actually, coopted, from the "yeḥidim", those who had full rights of membership in the synagogue. The ma'amad of the Spanish-Portuguese of London was satirized by Israel Zangwill in ''

The King of Schnorrers The King of Schnorrers is Israel Zangwill's 1894 picaresque novel,Milton Hindus,The King of Schnorrers, by Israel Zangwill, ''Commentary (magazine), Commentary'', March 1954 a collection of amusing tragicomic episodes of ''schnorring'' by "Manasseh ...

'', Chapter 5 "Showing How the King Dissolved the Mahamad". This is how Zangwill describes the absolute powers of ma'amad: "A Sephardic Jew lived and moved and had his being 'by permission of the Mahamad'. Without its consent he could have no legitimate place in the scheme of things. <...> He might, indeed, die without the sanction of the Council of Five, but this was the only great act of his life which was free from its surveillance, and he could certainly not be buried save 'by permission of the Mahamad'. Israel Zangwill,
The King of Schnorrers
', Chapter 5 "Showing How the King Dissolved the Mahamad"

References

Further reading