Khapper
Encyclopedia
The Khappers were employed by the kahal
s to fulfill the recruit quotas imposed on the Jewish communities from 1827 to 1857 in the Russian Empire
.
The Khappers were employed to kidnap Jewish boys (sometimes as young as eight) to fill out a quota
of Jews required to enter the cantonist
schools, in preparation for service in the Russian Army
, in the situations where such quotas were not filled legally, due to attempts by the families to hide their children. The term is a 19th century colloquialism
that comes from the Yiddish
word for grabber, in itself a borrowing from Ukrainian "схапати" (to grab).
Kahal
Kahal is a moshav in the Galilee near Highway 85 in northern Israel. The moshav is a combined agricultural community. It lies at the border of the Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee, north of Lake Kinneret and just northwest of Tabgha. It belongs to the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council and was...
s to fulfill the recruit quotas imposed on the Jewish communities from 1827 to 1857 in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
The Khappers were employed to kidnap Jewish boys (sometimes as young as eight) to fill out a quota
Jewish quota
Jewish quota was a percentage that limited the number of Jews in various establishments. In particular, in 19th and 20th centuries some countries had Jewish quotas for higher education, a special case of Numerus clausus....
of Jews required to enter the cantonist
Cantonist
Cantonists were underage sons of Russian conscripts who from 1721 were educated in special "canton schools" for future military service .-Cantonist schools during the 18th and early 19th centuries:Cantonist...
schools, in preparation for service in the Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
, in the situations where such quotas were not filled legally, due to attempts by the families to hide their children. The term is a 19th century colloquialism
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
that comes from the Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
word for grabber, in itself a borrowing from Ukrainian "схапати" (to grab).