Shkol'nik

[Deborah Hoffman]

I'm not sure where the Pale begins and ends exactly,
but I found some information from Chelm and Zgierz
(both Poland, at least at one time) indicating a
Shkolnik or Szkolnik was some kind of high office in
the kehilla, comparable either to a Director or a
Sexton.  

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/chelm/che013.html
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/zgierz/zgi062.html
http://jewishwebindex.com/lithuania.htm
(this last one discusses Szkolnik in Lithuania)

The material on Zgierz mentions the Szkolnik had to
take an oath of loyalty to the tsar, so if this is the
position you're looking for it sounds much more
important than what I think of as a shammes, namely
the guy who has the key, makes sure the tables are set
up for kiddush, and is a general nudge.

However, this Russian-language site does identifies
shkol'nik with shammes in the sense of an
administrator.  So maybe the answer to your question
depends on what one thinks a shammas does!

http://www.sem40.ru/rest/interesting/11907/

----------------------------------------------------
> Date:    Mon, 5 Sep 2005 17:33:11 -0700
> From:    Jules Levin <ameliede at EARTHLINK.NET>
> Subject: Help with translation, please
> 
> I am translating 19th C. Jewish birth registrations
> from the Pale of 
> Settlement.
>   I find in a document I am working on the term
> "shkol'nik" used for 
> adult 
> witnesses
> aged 58 and 67.  I suspect that these witnesses are
> employees of the 
> synagogue (shul), and the
> term shkol'nik was the Russian translation (if
> anyone
> actually used it) 
> for 
> a shamus (beadle).
> Can anyone confirm this or correct it?  Modern
> dictionaries do not even 
> give shkola as a Russian rendering
> of shul, but it would be parallel with German and
> Italian (scuola), so 
> I 
> suppose it could have been a hyper-learned
> usage...
> Jules Levin
> 

------------------------------------------------------->
> 
> > Date:    Mon, 5 Sep 2005 21:26:58 -0400
> > From:    "Robert A. Rothstein"
> > <rar at SLAVIC.UMASS.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: Help with translation, please
> > 
> > Jules Levin wrote:
> > 
> >        Dal' includes the meaning "synagogue" in
> his
> > entry for _shkola_, 
> > but also says that "byvshikh kantonistov zvali
> > neredko shkol'nikami."  
> > There's similar information on the website
> > <mirimen.co>, which states 
> > (in Russian and in the following transliteration):
> > "SHkol'nikami chasto 
> > zvali byvshix kantonistov, to est' synovej soldat
> i
> > voennyx poseljan, 
> > objazannyx v kachestve krepostnyx obuchat'sja v
> > osoboj voennoj shkole. 
> > (F) SHkol'nik. V knige Unbegauna familija
> SHkol'nik
> > rassmatrivaetsja kak 
> > evrejskaja familija, perevol [perevod] s idish
> > familii SHul'man. Na 
> > idish slovo sul [shul] oznachaet kak shkolu, tak i
> > xram (sinagogu), a 
> > familija SHul'man obrazovana ot jetogo [etogo]
> slova
> > no vo vtorom 
> > znachenii." 
> >     In the Jewish context _kantonistn_ were young
> > Jewish boys forced 
> > into tsarist military service during the reign of
> > Nicholas I. They were 
> > sent to the kantonist schools (i.e., the schools
> for
> > orphans and the 
> > sons of soldiers) until they were old enough to
> > serve.
> >     But then, in support of Jules' hypothesis that
> > _shkol'nik_ = 
> > _shames_, the site <www.ancestry.com> suggests
> that
> > "Shulman" 
> > (Unbegaun's etymon for _Shkol'nik_) is a variant
> of
> > "Schulman," which is 
> > a variat of "Schuler," one of the meanings of
> which
> > is "occupational 
> > name for a Talmudic scholar or the sexton of a
> > synagogue, from an agent 
> > derivative of Yiddish shul 'synagogue'."
> >     Bob Rothstein

Deborah Hoffman
Finance Chair, Graduate Student Senate
Modern and Classical Language Studies
Kent State University

http://users.ameritech.net/lino59/index.htm

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------