The Jewish community of Irkutsk in the late 19th - early 20th century: a case of the Russian phenomenon of “dual rabbinate”

This article aims to reconstruct one of the chapters in the history of the Irkutsk Jewish community of the late 19^th - early 20^th century associated with the Russian phenomenon of “dual rabbinate”. An analysis of the historiography on this issue showed that the subject of rabbinate in Siberia has not been sufficiently studied in Russia. The purpose of the study is to identify the main features of the case of Russian “dual rabbinate” under conditions of the Jewish community in Irkutsk (late 19^th - early 20^th centuries). This purpose of the study determined the following research tasks: to identify peculiarities of the institute of the rabbinate in Judaism, to define the nature of the institute of the rabbinate in the Russian Empire, to analyze the conditions for the formation of state and spiritual rabbinates in Siberia, to specify areas and features of the activities of state and spiritual rabbis of Irkutsk. The main sources of the study are the regulatory acts of the Russian Empire and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), documents of the Russian State Historical Archives (RGIA), the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF), the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region (GAIO), the State Archives of Krasnoyarsk Territory (GAKK), the State Archives of Tomsk Region (GATO). The study was based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, integrity, as well as comparative-historical, problematic and chronological, prosopographic research methods, the method of periodization, methods of induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. In the 19^th century, the authorities of the Russian Empire tried to accelerate the integration of Jews into a multinational society by passing a number of regulatory acts. The state was able to control Jewish communities with the institution of state rabbis, who were officially heads of communities. Under these conditions, in the second half of the 19^th century the country developed a system of “dual rabbinate”, i. e. each Jewish community had two rabbis, one of whom was a secular leader, and the other was a spiritual one. In Siberia, there were also two rabbis in large Jewish communities, as well as in the western and central parts of the Russian Empire. The Jewish community of Irkutsk was the largest community in Siberia in the late 19^th - early 20^th centuries. This community communicated with local authorities and resolved internal religious affairs through people with various official statuses who either directly or indirectly fell into this system of “dual rabbinate”. The history of the community is associated with the names of six elders of spiritual boards, three learned Jews, two spiritual rabbis and three state rabbis. The activities of spiritual and state rabbis were conditioned by the peculiarities of the relationship between local authorities and the Jewish community of Irkutsk. The best-known rabbi of the Irkutsk Jewish community was the state rabbi S. Kh. Beilin (1901-1921). Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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