This book features the mechanisms underlying the life of Jewish communities and the policies pursued by their authorities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th-18th centuries on the example of two communities: Poznań and Swarzędz. It covers such issues as election of community officials and their responsibilities, the rabbi's office, community courts, craftsmen's guilds and brotherhoods, control exercised by the community authorities over residents, the community's fiscal policy, the relations between the principal community (in that case Poznań) and its branch (here Swarzędz), and the relations between Jewish communities and non-Jewish authorities.

Anna Michałowska-Mycielska is a historian working at the Institute of History, Warsaw University. The subject of her studies is the history and culture of Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th-18th centuries.
She published:

Między demokracją a oligarchią. Władze gmin żydowskich w Poznaniu i Swarzędzu (od połowy XVII do końca XVIII wieku) [Between Democracy and Oligarchy: Jewish Communal Authorities in Poznań and Swarzędz from the Middle of the Seventeenth to the End of the Eighteenth Century], Warszawa 2000
Gminy żydowskie w dawnej Rzeczypospolitej. Wybór tekstów źrodłowych [Jewish communities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Selection of Source Texts], Warszawa 2003
Pinkas kahatu swarzędzkiego (1734-1830) [Pinkas of the Swarzedz Kahal (1734-1830)] Warszawa 2005
Sejmy i sejmiki koronne wobec Żydow. Wybór tekstów źródłowych [Diets and Dietines in Poland and the Jews. Selection of Source Texts], Warszawa 2006
Sejm Żydow litewskich (1623-1764) [The Council of Lithuanian Jews (1623-1764)], Warszawa 2014