Żydzi w strukturze politycznej i administracyjnej Rzeczypospolitej (XVI–XVIII w.)

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Jews constituted a separate state. The legal position of the Jewish population was determined by: general and provincial privileges, privileges for communes and individuals, ordinances of voivodes and private estate owners, sejm and sejmik resolutions, regulations of municipal and church authorities. For the authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Jewish self-government institutions (communal authorities, Jewish sejms) were the representation of the Jewish community necessary to control and collect state taxes from the Jews. In the second half of the 18th century the Jewish issue was one element of discussion on modernization of the state structures and changes in the position of particular groups of people.