Ma'amad or Mahamad () is the Council of Elders (or "the board of directors") of the communities of

Sephardi Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

( Spanish-Portuguese Jews) corresponding to ''

qahal The ''qahal'' (), sometimes spelled ''kahal'', was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible, See column345-6 and an Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from ...

'' of the

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

. Ma'amad was described as conservative and authoritarian. In

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

(

Ta'an ''Ta'anit'' or ''Taynis'' () is a volume (or "tractate") of the Mishnah, Tosefta, and both Talmuds. In Judaism these are the basic works of rabbinic literature. The tractate of Ta'anit is devoted chiefly to the fast-days, their practices and pra ...

. 15b:3), the term referred to the "members of the priestly watch" in charge of the Temple service. The Council consisted of four wardens (''parnassim'') and a treasurer (''

gabbai A ''gabbai'' (), sometimes spelled ''gabay'', also known as ''shamash'' (, sometimes transcribed ''shamas'') or warden ( UK, similar to churchwarden), is a beadle or sexton, a person who assists in the running of synagogue services in some w ...

''), and its members were elected from the ''yeḥidim'', those who had full membership rights in the

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

. The ma'amad of the Spanish-Portuguese of London was satirized by Israel Zangwill in ''

The King of Schnorrers ''The King of Schnorrers'' is Israel Zangwill's 1894 picaresque novel,Milton Hindus,The King of Schnorrers, by Israel Zangwill, ''Commentary (magazine), Commentary'', March 1954 a collection of amusing tragicomic episodes of ''schnorring'' by "Man ...

'', Chapter 5 "Showing How the King Dissolved the Mahamad". This is how Zangwill describes the absolute powers of ma'amad: "A Sephardic Jew lived and moved and had his being 'by permission of the Mahamad'. Without its consent he could have no legitimate place in the scheme of things....He might, indeed, die without the sanction of the Council of Five, but this was the only great act of his life which was free from its surveillance, and he could certainly not be buried save 'by permission of the Mahamad'.

References

Further reading