A Study of Jewish Communal Leadership in Meknes, 1750–1912 r 309charity’s central role in the leadership structure of Meknes. On the one
hand, the stipulation that the fines were for a good cause undoubtedly
legitimized the prohibitions laid out in the taqanot. Jewish leaders’ con-
trol of charity thus enhanced their authority. On the other hand, the des-
ignation of extra public money for the poor—money that did not flow
from regular sources of communal income—reinforced the community’s
dedication to caring for its underprivileged members, again increasing its
legitimacy in the eyes of Meknes’s Jews.
Meknes’s Jewish leaders saw it as their responsibility to control almost
every aspect of poor relief, from donations by individuals to the sym-
bolic legitimization incurred by levying fines to benefit the poor. Yet the
supervision of charity did not represent the limits of their responsibili-
ties. Beyond their response to existing poverty, the Jewish leaders of Me-
knes took it upon themselves to address the future financial state of their
community.
Jewish Leaders and the Prevention of Poverty
Jewish leaders’ focus on the immediate relief of suffering reflected their
view of poverty as a permanent aspect of society. Nonetheless, they were
far from content to merely provide handouts. Jewish leaders in Meknes
waged a constant battle to prevent families from slipping into poverty
in the first place. Although structural poverty would always exist, they
nevertheless attempted to reduce the numbers of those who “fell from
their riches.” These efforts to control impoverishment are perhaps the best
evidence of the extent to which charity and authority were entwined. The
measures taken by Meknes’s Jewish leaders also demonstrate the exten-
sive centralization of charity among Jews as compared to Muslims; no
attempt to prevent future impoverishment has been observed in Muslim
charitable efforts. The wide range of Jewish leaders’ authority stretched
on one axis from individual to communal actions, on another from local
to foreign causes, and on yet a third from present to future conditions.
Meknesi Jews’ strategies for controlling poverty also challenge the
dichotomy between “traditional” and “modern” approaches to charity.
Many scholars juxtapose traditional charity, which limits itself to the ma-
terial relief of poverty, with modern (i.e., European) ideas about charity,
which seek to implement social policies that reduce and eventually elimi-
nate poverty.^81 The case of Meknes challenges this dichotomy, suggesting