The article deals with the problems of functioning of Jewish houses of worship in the Russian Empire from a legal point of view. By the end of the 19th century, restrictions applied to almost all spheres of Jewish life. What lawmakers in government offices did not think about conflicts in practice. The laws were full of inaccuracies and vague concepts. The sphere of Jewish spiritual life, seemingly regulated by lawmakers with special provisions, in practice turned into a stubborn struggle for the right to its realization. The study demonstrates that the diversity of interpretation/interpretation of the law by officials of different levels and local authorities, their attentive/inattentive attitude to a particular case led to different, sometimes unexpectedly “positive” decisions for communities. The sources of the work were a wide range of documents: legislative and clerical materials, among which were petitions from Jews to open prayer halls, representations from governors addressed to the Government. The decisions of officials could be based on the formal execution of the letter of the law, or the thoughtful work of officials at different levels. The officials own understanding of the letter of the law led to completely different decisions, the history of which does not find any pattern. Among them were simple functionaries who followed the letter of the law in a detached manner, without going into details, making both positive and negative decisions. They could also act as researchers and experts, trying to understand the situation in detail and demanding additional clarifying information. The situation of Jewish houses of worship, as well as other aspects of Jewish rights in Russia, has become only one of the areas with numerous legal conflicts caused by imperfect legislation, its ambiguity and inconsistency.
Ekatrerina Norkina (Thu,) studied this question.