HALUKKAH CONTRIBUTIONS AND THE AMERICAN KOLEL

Beginning in 1866, special emissaries were sent by the newly-formed Vaad Clali which had just been established in Jerusalem to oversee all halukkah funding and to work closely with the halukkah organizations in the United States and Canada. By the late 1870s, the North American Relief Society for the Indigent Jews of Jerusalem (est. in 1853 by the Portuguese Jewish and orthodox German Jewish communities as the successor to the Trumat haKodesh) was contributing $750 a year to Palestine, by way of the halukkah center in London, with instructions to divide the amount equally between the Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Contributions intended for Ashkenazim only, were sent directly to the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Samuel Salant in Jerusalem. The New York Society for the Relief of the Poor in Palestine forwarded about $1,250 a year. Baltimore congregations Chizook Emunah and the local Shearith Israel would send about $500 a year. Up to 1885, American halukkah contributions did not exceed $5,000 annually, but through the energetic work of Palestinian Rabbi Yosef Rivlin, the increase of the halukkah from America was soon apparent. Both Ashkenazim and Sephardim competed for American funds, but the Sephardim, tired of opposing the Ashkenazim in North America, decided instead, to confine their attention to the largely Sephardic centers in southern Europe, Africa, and Asia.

By the 1890s, the North American Relief Society came to be mired by law suits by those who challenged its handling of Halukkah funds. Legal costs were staggering and this resulted in the organization’s eventual disbandment. American halukkah seemed headed for demise, but not quite.In 1879, a group of American Jews who settled in Jerusalem attempted to form an American kolel with the support of the US consul in Jerusalem J.G. Wilson. Presumably, this kolel would be supported by American Jewry at the expense of the other kolelim in Palestine, and the Vaad Clali made sure to block its establishment. The Vaad was initially successful and, instead, took responsibility for the Americans’ welfare. Despite this, under the initiative of Nahum Harris, an American retiree living in Jerusalem, an American kolel was finally formed in 1896, separate from the Vaad Clali, and they called it Kolel America Tif’eret Yerushalaim. The Brisker Rebbe Yehoshua Lob Diskin was persuaded to be its spiritual head and under his guidance, contributions to Kolel America increased yearly. By 1900, membership had reached almost 300. It still exists to this day. The Vaad, fearing the consequence of this independent kolel, effected a settlement in 1901 on a basis of two-thirds for the Vaad and one-third for the Kolel from all collections made in the United States and Canada. Under this new arrangement, the total amount of the American collections for the halukkah increased and amounted to about $20,000 a year – about $5,500 after expenses.