Crown rabbi (Russia)

Crown rabbi (Russian: казённый раввин, [kɐ'zʲon:ɨj rav'vʲin], official rabbi) was a position in the Russian Empire given to a member of a Jewish community appointed to act as an intermediary between his community and the Imperial government to perform certain civil duties, such as registering births, marriages, and divorces. Crown rabbis were often considered as agents of the state and not rabbis by members of their own communities because their main job qualification was fluency in Russian, and they often had no education in, or knowledge of Jewish law.

The origins of the crown rabbinate in Imperial Russia date to the early 19th century and administrative requirements by the Tsar that the Jewish community maintain and provide civil records to the Imperial government in the Russian language.

The Russian government viewed all permissible religions as agents of the state. Russian Orthodox priests, Mennonite ministers, Catholics as well as Jewish rabbis–were all required to perform certain civil duties such as registering births, deaths, and marriages, as well as other duties. The Russians found this arrangement useful, and employed designated members of these religious communities at a tiny salary (which could be augmented by bribes by the ambitious) to perform these official functions.

Ukases by Tsar Alexander I (reigned 1801–1825) required the rabbis to maintain civil information in Russian as well as Hebrew. Rabbis in the Empire all spoke Hebrew and Yiddish, but few could speak Russian or other languages considered useful by the Empire such as German and Polish. For this reason, the Jewish communities chose an individual familiar with Russian and other required languages to perform this role, and put his name forward. If approved by the governmental administration, they became "official" rabbis, in the sense that they acted as the intermediary between their community and the Imperial government for the required civil and other administrative duties the government required of them.

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