kehillot

Kehillot is the plural of kehilla, a Hebrew term meaning "community" or "congregation." In Jewish usage, a kehilla can refer to a local religious community, a synagogue-based congregation, or a broader organized community group. The root word kahal means assembly or company.

Historically, kehillot were self-governing communal bodies responsible for the welfare of Jews in a city or region. They organized religious life (synagogues, prayer services), education (cheder, yeshiva), welfare and charity (tzedakah funds), and civil matters such as marriage, divorce, and ritual status, sometimes functioning with formal authority to levy taxes and oversee communal property. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, kehillot exercised significant autonomy, electing a communal council and rabbinical court, while remaining under the sovereignty of the state. In the Ottoman Empire and other areas with Jewish populations, similar communal structures existed under the broader legal framework of the empire, often coordinating with local authorities.

In modern Hebrew, kehilla commonly denotes a local Jewish community or congregation, and the word is used in the names of many organizations and municipal associations. The plural kehillot is used to refer to multiple such communities, or to the concept of Jewish communities worldwide.

Today, the term continues to appear in discussions of Jewish demography, religious organizations, and communal life, including diaspora communities and Israeli civic and religious organizations. See also kahal, kehila, and congregation.