The hospital administrators held a high position within the Jewish community administration, ranking directly after the "master builders" and treasurers. Again, this was an honorary position, based on the religious obligation to show charity and supposed to be held on an annual basis by the men from the richest and most highlyregarded groups in the Jewish community. In reality, however, the office seems to have been little sought after. The hospital administrators were responsible for the management of the hospitals in the Judengasse. Direct care of the sick and needy was the responsibility of the community doctors, the hekdesh (hospital director) and the nurses. Besides their responsibilities in connection with hospitals the hospital administrators had other duties, including acting as observers in various elections, such as those for the "master builders" and treasurers, as advisers on financial matters and other functions.