Dictionary

sheik al-Yahud en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) An official representative of a Jewish community under an Islamic government.
   • In Sefrou, a single wealthy family, popularly regarded as “stubborn but not intelligent” provided the sheikh al-Yahud for several generations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries until an excess of stubbornness at the expense of intelligence led the sultan to inform Sefrou’s Jews that he did not much care whom they had for their sheikh so long as he did not come from that family. 2022, Clifford Geertz, SŪQ: Geertz on the Market, page 46:
   • It is during the ensuing decade that Gedaliah's name, and perhaps lineage, precede him: he is appointed Chief Arbitrator (ראש בית דין) and later assumes the prominent position Sheik al Yahud [Head to the Jews] in Jerusalem. 2007, Zohar Raviv, Fathoming the Heights, Ascending the Depths, University of Michigan, page 136:
   • In addition to his post as rav, he had been selected by the kadi to serve as the Sheik al-Yehud — the Jewish elder who officially represented the community to the Ottoman authorities. 1998, Dovid Rossoff, Where Heaven Touches Earth, page 35: