Schulklopfer Explained

A schulklopfer (or shulklopfer; ^[1]) is the person who calls a Jewish community to prayer in the local synagogue.^{[2] [3]}

The schulklopfer was usually a beadle, who would perform the task by wandering around the community, knocking on each household's door early in the morning. In Neustadt, he would knock four times. Israel Isserlein, a rabbi from Neustadt, argued that this pattern encoded the biblical phrase "I shall come to thee and bless thee"^[4] In the Rhine, the custom was to strike thrice.

In mediaeval Eastern Europe, the schulklopfer also had the role of individually inviting people to marriage ceremonies (nissuin); the invitations were made to the entire community by the schulklopfer on the morning of the marriage ceremony itself (such ceremonies were usually an evening affair).^[5]

The name stems from the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) in the Middle Ages. Christians in nearby communities sometimes referred to schulklopfers as campanatores (a Latin term meaning bell-strikers) or as Glöckner (German for bell-striker).

See also

• Muezzin, the Islamic equivalent
• Klopfer, surname

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia: "Schulklopfer" by Cyrus Adler and Max Seligsohn (1906)

Notes and References

1. Book: Wexler, Paul . Jewish and Non-Jewish Creators of "Jewish" Languages: With Special Attention to Judaized Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Persian, Portuguese, Slavic (modern Hebrew/Yiddish), Spanish, and Karaite, and Semitic Hebrew/Ladino ; a Collection of Reprinted Articles from Across Four Decades with a Reassessment. 2006. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden. 3447054042. (page 587, footnote 8).
2. Book: Singer, Isidore & Adler,Cyrus (Eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11. 1906. Funk and Wagnalls. New York. 114. https://web.archive.org/web/20150923091738/http://d2b4hhdj1xs9hu.cloudfront.net/C11K114R.jpg. September 23, 2015. Alt URL
3. Book: Rose, Emily C.. Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside. 2001. Jewish Publication Society. Philadelphia. 978-0-8276-0706-4. 57.
4. Exodus 20:24
5. Book: Singer, Isidore & Adler,Cyrus (Eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8. 1906. Funk and Wagnalls. New York. 340ff. Alt URL