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This chapter examines the extent to which service in manorial office was characterised by relative inclusion of all members of the community or whether official positions were controlled by a narrow elite, and how this changed over time. Through examining the systems by which officials were selected, it finds that communities of tenants had significant power over who was chosen for office owing to traditions of collective liability. A further quantitative analysis of selection patterns reveals a two-tier system. While a significant proportion of the adult male tenant population likely served in office across their lifetimes, an elite dominated office through repeat service across a number of different roles. These findings demonstrate that a single designation of ‘participatory’ or ‘restrictive’ cannot be applied to manorial officeholding, as patterns of selection encompassed both elements. It also reveals little change into the early modern period, challenging a narrative of the rise of the ‘middling sort’.
The political changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries brought an end to the political authority of halakhic law. In a society shaped by Judaic traditions, groups more liable to be poor include immigrants and aliens, women, and paradoxically those committed to the supreme religious ideal of a life of study. In the Jewish tradition, alleviating poverty is by no means merely a matter for supererogation; the duty to help the poor is called tzedakah. Providing for the basic needs of the poor was seen also as a communal responsibility, and Jewish communities did so through two complementary mechanisms: a daily operation of food collection and distribution, and a tzedakah fund that made weekly disbursements to all poor residents. The common form of competition for welfare resources was between the local poor, asserting an entitlement to the care and resources of their own community, and itinerant claimants.
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