<P> The loose collection of learned rabbis that governed the dispersed Jewish community held sway for a long time . Great parts of Central Europe accepted the leadership of the rabbinical Council of Four Lands from the 16th to the late 18th centuries . In the Eastern Europe, in spite of the rivalry between the schools of thought of the Vilna Gaon (or the GRA, Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon, 1720--1797) of the Mitnagdim, who spoke against Hasidic Judaism and Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, 1700--1760), the founder of Hasidic Judaism, rabbis were regarded as the final arbiters of community decisions . Tens of thousands of Responsa and many works were published and studied wherever Jews lived in organized communities . In Western Europe, especially in monarchies, where no equal rights were granted for the Jewish population, radical Maskilim defined the new role of religion as an education of just citizens--like Moses Mendelssohn in his book Jerusalem or On Religious Power and Judaism which was a response to the Prussian reformer Christian Wilhelm von Dohm . The radical tendency of the pedagogic movement went so far, that Mendelssohn's student David Friedländer identified Judaism with the seclusion of modern European culture and secular Judaism could end up in conversion to the religion of the unsecularized state . In contradiction to his teacher early modern leadership turned out to be misled leadership, whose followers ended up as "Jewish citizens without any conscience". </P> <P> With the growth of the Renaissance and the development of the secular modern world, and as Jews were welcomed into non-Jewish society particularly during the times of Napoleon in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews began to leave the Jewish ghettos in Europe, and simultaneously rejected the traditional roles of the rabbis as communal and religious leaders . New leaders such as Israel Jacobson, father of the German Reform Judaism movement, launched an egalitarian, modernist stance that challenged the Orthodoxy . The resulting fractures in Jewish society has translated into a situation whereby there is no single religious governing body for the entire Jewish community at the present time . </P> <P> In individual religious congregations or synagogues, the spiritual leader is generally the rabbi . Rabbis are expected to be taught in both the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) as well as many other classical texts of Jewish scholarship . Rabbis go through formal training in Rabbinical texts and responsa, either at a yeshiva or similar institution . "Rabbi" is not a universal term however, as many Sephardic rabbinic Jewish communities refer to their leaders as hakham ("wise man"). Among Yemenite Jews, known as Teimanim, the term mori ("my teacher") is used . Each religious tradition has its own qualifications for rabbis; for more information, see Semicha ("ordination"). In addition to the rabbi, most synagogues have a hazzan (cantor) who leads many parts of the prayer service . </P> <P> In Israel the office of Chief Rabbi has always been very influential . Various Orthodox movements, such as Agudath Israel of America and the Shas party in Israel strictly follow the rulings of their Rosh yeshivas who are often famous Talmud scholars . The last Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in Israel are examples of powerful contemporary Haredi rabbis . The Haredi Agudah movements receive and follow the policy guidelines of their own Council of Torah Sages . In the Hassidic movements, leadership is usually hereditary . </P>

What is the name given to the chief religious leader of a synagogue