destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, there has been no single body that has a leadership position over the entire Jewish diaspora. Various branches of Judaism
, as well as Jewish religious or secular communities and political movements around the world elect or appoint their governing bodies, often subdivided by country or region.
Oral Law in Judaism, took on a growing and central leadership role. After the destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent exile for almost two thousand years, the Jews scattered throughout the world turned to their most learned rabbis
for local leadership and council.
During
Judah haNasi was not only the supreme temporal leader sanctioned by Rome, but also edited the original work of the Mishnah which became the "de facto constitution" of the world's Jewry. The final editions of the Talmud became the core curriculum
The loose collection of learned rabbis that governed the dispersed Jewish community held sway for a long time. Great parts of
Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism which was a response to the Prussian reformer Christian Wilhelm von Dohm. The radical tendency of the pedagogic movement went so far, that Mendelssohn's student David Friedländer
identified Judaism with the seclusion of modern European culture and secular Judaism could end up in conversion to the religion of the unsecularized state. In contradiction to his teacher early modern leadership turned out to be misled leadership, whose followers ended up as "Jewish citizens without any conscience".
Modern religious leadership (post–19th century)
Decline of rabbinic influence
With the growth of the
modern world, and as Jews were welcomed into non-Jewish society particularly during the times of Napoleon in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews began to leave the Jewish ghettos in Europe, and simultaneously rejected the traditional roles of the rabbis as communal and religious leaders. New leaders such as Israel Jacobson, father of the German Reform Judaism
movement, launched an egalitarian, modernist stance that challenged the Orthodoxy. The resulting fractures in Jewish society has translated into a situation whereby there is no single religious governing body for the entire Jewish community at the present time.
In both the Reform and Conservative of Judaism, rabbis are often trained at religious universities, such as the
rabbis
and other religious leaders.
The Union of Reform Judaism (URJ), the synagogue arm of the Reform Movement in North America, is governed by a 253-member Board of Trustees in close partnership with URJ Chair Daryl Messinger, URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs, and the senior leadership team. Delegates from URJ congregations meet once every two years for the URJ General Assembly to pass resolutions that guide the organization's future direction.[1]
values and life-styles. Many modern Jewish communities are served by a variety of secular organizations at the local, national, and international levels. These organizations have no official role in religious life, but often play an important part in the Jewish community. Most of the largest groups, such as Hadassah and the United Jewish Communities
, have an elected leadership. No one secular group represents the entire Jewish community, and there is often significant internal debate among Jews about the stances these organizations take on affairs dealing with the Jewish community as a whole, such as antisemitism and Israeli policies.
In the United States and Canada today, the mainly secular
represent different segments of the American Jewish community on a variety of issues.
Karaite leadership
A Karaite synagogue is run by a board of directors, and its spiritual leader is often called a Hakham, the equivalent of a "rabbi", and matches one in function. The Gabbai is the treasurer, the Shammash is the custodian, the Hazzan leads prayers, and in some the Ba'al Qeri'ah leads in the reading of the Torah. In America, Karaites are represented by the Karaite Jews of America, and in Israel they are represented.