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Community=Kehilla
We lost the Kehilla when the Jews in Europe were emancipated. The (Coercive) Kehillas of the past had real power. The taxed you, handled most court cases, told you where to Daven, told you where your kids go to school, told you where you must buy your meat, you had to buy your Mezuzahs and Tefillin from the Kehilla Sofer (whether you thought he was a good Sofer or not). They told you the Kehilla minhagim & you were required to keep them. In other words there was no I dont like the Shul so I’ll open a Shteibel or I dont like the school so I’ll open my own. But Jews accepted it as part of Jewish life. If a Jew lived in a Kehilla where they didn’t put on Tefillin on Chol Hamoed & they moved to a Kehilla that did they accepted the change instead of fighting it. The Kehilla governing body could fine or even jail you for not following the rules. Today no Kehillas exist. The closest thing we have to a Kehilla today are Kiryas Joel and New Square but they don’t have anything like the power the Coercive Kehilla had.
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