of Shelihut grew significantly following the Ottoman conquest of Palestine in the sixteenth century, and missions became regular features of Jewish life to support the poor and scholars. By the mid-seventeenth century, the four holy cities--Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias (after its Jewish community was reestablished around 1740)--regularly dispatched their own emissaries, representing the settlement (Yishuv) as a whole, a type of emissary known as Sheli'ah Kolel.

During the eighteenth century, the international fundraising network