supposing there are such in the community.
h. Manner of levying taxes and procuring the means necessary for the maintenance of the community and its institutions.
i. Pensions statutes for employees and their families.
j. Procedure in the case of a change in the statutes.
PROPERY, REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES, OR THEIR UNION (OR ASSOCIATION, AS THE CASE MAY BE)
8—The material means needed by the communities and the Union (and Association) for the realization of their tasks are to be provided:
a. Out of the income from their property.
b. Out of religious taxes and contributions.
c. Out of subsidies, donations, as well as out of the yield of endowments, funds and, if need be, out of taxes levied on the latter.
d. Out of eventual grants from political administrative communities.
e. Out of the permanent State subsidy. The amount of the latter will be determined by the Minister of Justice in agreement with the Minister of Finance, after hearing the Union and the Association, and on the basis of the actual needs and the donation provided for in the State budget for the year 1929-1930. That subsidy is paid out through the Union and the Association in proportion to their numerical strength.
Political administrative communities which in their annual budgets allot permanent subsidies for religious purposes, will assign an amount proportionate to the number of Jews, also to the Jewish communities established within their domain.
10—Buildings for the purpose of holding divine services, and such as serve other religious, cultural and charitable ends, as well as communal homes in which religious offices, institutions, dwellings of spiritual functionaries, or Jewish cultural-historic antiquities are housed, are exempt from all public rates and taxes.
11—The official correspondence and postal transmission of valuables belonging to Jewish communities, to the Union (and the Association), as well as to the rabbinical offices and the Chief Rabbinate, are exempt from postal and telegraphic charges.
12—All Jews, of either sex, who own property or enjoy revenue, or earn a livelihood in some liberal profession are under an obligation to furnish religious contributions and taxes of every description, with a view to covering the requirements of their community and its institutions. Those contributions and taxes are also a charge upon those Jews who do not reside within the territory of some community of their own section, but who there possess a freehold, or a leasehold, or who there engage in some trade, or maintain a commercial or industrial undertaking. In case a member has withdrawn from his own and is received into another community in the same locality, he must discharge, up to the end of the fifth year, after the year of his said withdrawal, all contributions and taxes of the community which he has left, to an equal amount as that to which he was liable at the time of his withdrawal. The same applies to the case quoted in the second portion of (5).
SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS—AUTONOMOUS REPRESENTATIVES AND FUNCTIONARIES
13—The spiritual head of the Jewish Religious Community in the Kingdom of Jugoslavia is the supreme Rabbi (Chief Rabbi) with his seat at Belgrade. He is appointed by Royal Ukase, on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice, from among three candidates who are elected jointly by the chief committees of the Union and of the Association, by the representatives of the Jewish communities of all sections, at Belgrade, Zagreb, Skoplje, Sarajevo, Novisad, Subotica and Osijek, in so far as they are not represented on the chief committees, further by all Rabbis discharging duties in Jewish religious institutions within the Kingdom.
When the post of Chief Rabbi becomes vacant, the election of candidates must take place not later than six months from that date. Until the election of the new Chief Rabbi, his religious duties are performed by a deputy appointed by the Minister of Justice on the recommendation of the chief committees of the Union and of the Association, in agreement with both Rabbinical synods.
The Chief Rabbi’s salary and the staff and other expenses of the Chief Rabbinate are laid down in the subsidy voted by the State for the Jewish Religious Community, but apart from the remaining sum of that subsidy. The Chief Rabbi is entitled to a pension of the First Group, First Category. His personal pension as well as that paid to his family after his death, is defrayed out of the State budget, in accordance with the law concerning officials and other civil employees.
14—The Chief Rabbi is at the same time president of both Rabbinical Synods. One synod consists of three members and two deputy-members out of the ranks of the Orthodox Rabbis; the second synod consists of five members and three deputy-members out of the ranks of the other Rabbis. The members of a Synod are chosen by the Rabbis of that particular section. The Rabbinical Synods give their opinion on all questions of a religious character which the Chief Committee of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities has to decide. When the Chief Committee does not accept the opinion of its Rabbinical Synod, the question is deliberated on by a special committee consisting of five members of the Rabbinical Synod and six lay members of the Chief Committee. That special Committee is presided over by the Chief Rabbi, and his decisions are adopted by a simple majority of votes.
15—The spiritual head of the Jewish religious community is the rabbi. In the communities of the Union they are single-voters on the community board, when religious questions are under consideration. In orthodox communities the rabbis are single-voters on the Board on all questions. The Community Board settles religious questions as a court of first instance. The appointment (election) of the rabbis and of all employes is carried out by the communities autonomously.
16—Rabbis and other religious functionaries are definitely or provisionally appointed by decree of the governing board of the community. The provisional stage must not last more than three years in the case of rabbis, and five in the case of other employees. Once he has been definitely appointed, the Rabbi or religious functionary can only be dismissed on the strength of a disciplinary judgment arrived at in the disciplinary way, as laid down in the statutes of that particular community and of the Union.
17—The rabbi and the other religious functionaries are under no obligation personally to exercise any public functions which, according to Jewish religious precepts, are incompatible with their calling and office.
18—Only qualified persons are entitled to exercise the official religious calling, whether in the Jewish Community or in the State service. The qualification is prescribed and verified by the Chief Rabbi and the competent Synod. Subjects of foreign States can only be appointed as rabbis and to other functions, provisionally, and this only after endorsement by the Minister of Justice.
19—Membership of the governing board of the Union, the Association, and in the communities, is an honorary office. Persons condemned, or being tried on a criminal charge for some dishonorable offense, further, persons in a state of bankruptcy and under legal guardianship, can neither be elected, nor may they exercise their duties until those obstacles are removed.
20—Disciplinary offences by rabbis and other functionaries of the community are dealt with in conformity with the statutes of that particular community and with the statutes of the Union or the Association. The communities adjudicate upon disciplinary offences committed by their employees, with the exception of the rabbi. The Union, as court of second and supreme instance, adjudicates upon appeals against decisions of its own communities, as court of first and supreme instance, where disciplinary offences by rabbis are concerned. Decisions upon disciplinary offences charged against orthodox rabbis and functionaries, are made by the Synod of Orthodox Rabbis. Disciplinary proceedings against rabbis and other religious functionaries may also be officially instituted by the Rabbinical Synod. In cases where State authorities institute a criminal investigation against functionaries enjoying religious autonomy, they will inform the Chief Rabbi and the Union or the Association of this, as well as of the result of the investigation.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS
21—In all State and private schools attended by pupils of the Jewish Faith, Jewish religious instruction is provided, in agreement with the competent Jewish communities, through their religious organs, and in accordance with the legal regulations in force, regarding those schools.
Curricula and programs for the religious instruction are prescribed by the competent Minister; in this connection regard will be paid to the needs of Jewish religious education, in conformity with the proposals of the Union, or of the Orthodox Synod, as the case may be—where adherents of orthodoxy are concerned. The law concerning school books applies also to text books on Religion. In regard to the religious content, the Union (or the Synod of Orthodox rabbis) will sanction books on religion.
In the State primary schools qualifie religious teachers may give religious instruction: and this in accordance with the law concerning primary schools. Religious instructors, ministers of religion, are appointed by the Minister of Education from among the list of candidates proposed to him by the Union or the Synod of Orthodox Rabbis, as the case may be. The Minister of Education appoints those candidates to be religious instructors in the State training and secondary schools, who have a certificate from the Union (or the Synod of Orthodox Rabbis), declaring that they are capable of teaching religion in secondary schools. The religious instructors are transferred or dismissed by the Minister of Education in accordance with the regulations of the school Laws. Religious instructors in private schools are appointed and transferred by the School Management with the consent of the competent Jewish community. The regulations of the school laws apply also to this class of religious instructors. The Union, the Orthodox Rabbinical Synod, may withdraw an authorization already given, from religious instructors who are not giving their religious instruction in the spirit of the Jewish religion, or who by their mode of life and by their actions are offending against their duties as religious instructors.
22—The Jewish Theological Seminary is a recognized institution under the supervision of the Union.
In the event of a seminary of an orthodox tendency being founded, it will come under the supervision of the Association. If a seminary lacks the necessary equipment for training rabbis, the attainment of the rabbinical qualifications may be sought at foreign institutions. Such qualifications are tested by the competent rabbinical synod.
GENERAL REGULATIONS
23—The official language for the Jewish communities and their central institutions is—the official State language.
In that language all registers are kept and all excerpts and documents made out. Those excerpts have the character of public documents.
24—No Jewish community can fulfil religious functions relatively to a member of any other Jewish community in the Kingdom, so long as that person has not furnished proof of the fact that he has discharged all his obligations towards his former community. There is only one exception to this: where a dead person is to be buried, and, owing to distance or lack of time, there is no possibility of obtaining the proofs.
25—In conformity with the Law, Jewish State and communal employees, soldiers and students, enjoy a day of rest on the following Jewish religious Holidays.
a—Passover, the first two and the last two days.
b—Shevuos, two days.
c—Rosh Hashana (New Year), two days.
d—Yom Kippur, one whole day and one half (Erev) day.
e—Sukos, first two and last two days.
REGULATIONS FOR THE TRANSITION
26—The regulation in the first section 5, in so far as it only provides for one community of the same tendency in any one place, does not apply to communities which already exist on the day when this Law comes into force.
27—All Jewish communities must, in virtue of this Law, draw up statutes conformable to its provisions, not later than three months after this Law has come into force, and send them to the Union, the Association for endorsement, whereupon the statutes must be submitted by the Union, the Association to the Minister of Justice, for his confirmation.
28—Once this Law has come into force, all laws, ordinances, and other regulations bearing on the subject of this Law, lose their validity.
29—This Law enters into life when it has been signed by the King, and receives binding force when it has been published in the “Sluzbene Novine.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
