Until 200 years ago, virtually all Jewish communities in the world were hareidi and were autonomous. In the 18th century, when a Jew wanted a divorce, he or she went to Beis Din, even in what is now the United States. All Jewish communities were expected to run their own institutions, without government funding, and all Jews were expected to use the Jewish institutions rather than the government’s (which, at the time, were usually run by the local church in Christian countries). With the “enlightenment” we started losing autonomy, and when some Jews responded by demanding control over the goyim’s institutions, we started having troubles.
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