Edah HaChareidis
large ultra-Orthodox Jewish communal organization based in Jerusalem
The Charedi Community of Jerusalem (Hebrew: העדה החרדית, haEdah haCharedit, Ashkenazi pronunciation: ho-Aideh HaCharaidis or ho-Eido ha-Chareidis; "Community of God-Fearers") is a large Haredi Jewish communal organization based in Jerusalem. It has several thousand affiliated households and is chaired by the Grand Patriarch (Ga'avad), who also holds the title of chief rabbi (Mara D'Ara D'Yisroel מרא דארעא דישראל). The Community is led by a Beis Din, and provides facilities such as Kashrut supervision, Mikva'oth, Eruvin, and welfare services.
The Community was founded in 1918 by devout Ashkenazi residents of Jerusalem, especially of the Old Yishuv, who refused to be affiliated in any way with the new Zionist institutions. Inspired by militant anti-Zionist ideology, it refuses to receive any state funding from the Israeli authorities, relying on donations from fellow anti-Zionist Haredi Jews abroad and its own income, and it forbids voting in Israeli elections. Its members often engage in demonstrations against Sabbath desecration, autopsies, or archaeological excavations of human remains, which they regard as sins, and are noted for their poverty and extreme religious strictness.
History
The Edah HaChareidis was originally founded by Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld and Rabbi Yitzchok Yerucham Diskin (son of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin) in 1918, as the Ashkenazic City Council (Va'ad Ha'Ir Ha'Ashkenazi ועד העיר האשכנזי), to separate from the Zionist-controlled General City Council. Rabbi Sonnenfeld had previously been the de facto chief rabbi of Jerusalem since 1909, after the death of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, but only accepted the official title in 1920, in order to counter the establishment of the Chief Rabbinate by the Zionist movement under British auspices. The Council originally had two rabbinical courts, one for the perushim and one for the chassidim, over which Rabbi Sonnenfeld was named as the first Av Beis Din, a position he held until his death in 1932. In 1936 the two courts joined and the organization received its current name.
“Edah HaChareidis” enters the record as large ultra-Orthodox Jewish communal organization based in Jerusalem. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Edah, HaChareidis and large can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q779184. VIAF identifies the subject as 144782654. The Library of Congress control number is no89008303. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1909, 1920 and 1932.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edah HaChareidis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.