Sympathizing Jews in a diaspora city or district would form a standing committee, presided over by a gabbai, to supervise collections and to remit funds semiannually to the managers of the halukkah, located in Jerusalem.

[1] One ubiquitous and passive method of fund-raising was the institution of the household and synagogue 'charity-box', an innovation of late seventeenth century meshulachim, frequently labeled so that the charity be given in memory of Rabbi Meir Ba'al ha-Nes.

The conceptual antecedent of the halukka may date back to the earliest Rabbinical period, when the Jewish academies in Eretz Israel were supported in large part by voluntary contributions from congregations elsewhere.

שליח ציון‎) was applied during the Amoraic era (fourth century CE) to Rabbi Hama ben Ada, who traveled between Babylon and Eretz Israel, delivering decisions and messages,[2] and probably soliciting relief.

[1] During the famine of 1441, the Jewish community of Jerusalem sent a meshulach, whose name is curiously recorded as Esrim veArba'ah (a surname, and not, as Heinrich Graetz supposes, a title of honor indicating his knowledge of the 24 books of the Bible[1]) to European countries.

[8] Another takkanah was afterward issued which practically amounted to a confiscation, for the benefit of the halukkah, of the chattels, money, and accounts of a deceased Jew who left no resident heirs.

[1] There were many evasions, and in several instances the well-to-do, before taking up their residence in the Holy Land, stipulated a certain sum which was to be paid to the community upon their death in place of the fulfilment of the decree.

[citation needed] The income from this tax, however, never amounted to one-third of the halukkah, and to supply the deficiency there was no alternative but to resort to the meshulachim, who as a result became so numerous, and such frequent visitors in the European congregations, that they were regarded as wandering tramps, a nuisance and a reproach.

Hagiz was aware of the fact that the meshulachim were not liked, that they were abused no less than were the sages in Jerusalem, who were suspected and accused of "leading a luxurious life and spending the funds of the halukkah in drinking coffee and smoking tobacco."

A meshulach would contractually obligate himself to devote his attention and best endeavors: to arousing people to charity by offering public lectures; to urging local gabbaim to increase their remittances, and; to opening up new sources of income.

Rabbi Abraham Gershon Kutawer, leader of the Hasidim in Hebron, sent meshulachhim to Metz and diverted the halukkah revenue from that source to his own section of the Holy Land.

A letter dated 1778, and written from Safed by Israel Perez Polotzker to the gabbaim of Vitebsk, Russia, states that their meshulachim came to the house of Baruch Ananio, the head gabbai of the central committee at Constantinople, and received 3,000 lire.

[12] In the credentials issued to Rabbi Abraham ha-Kohen of Lask, a Jerusalem meshulach sent to Poland in 1783, the Sephardic central committee writes that Ashkenazim in the Holy Land were taken care of and given a proportionate share of the halukkah.

Contributions poured in, and the only difficulty experienced by the meshulach was the safe delivery of the funds to Tiberias and Jerusalem, as the roads via Constantinople were infested by bands of robbers.

He secured the assistance of Rabbi Mordecai of Niesvizh, who issued a proclamation, dated "22 Adar I., 5556 1796," and addressed to all Jews of Poland, imploring every male and female, adult and minor, whether living in cities or villages, to donatee a fixed sum every week for the support of their countrymen, who had settled in the Holy Land.

But through the energetic work of Rivlin the increase of the Ashkenazic halukkah from America was soon apparent, and was largely due to the reports and the activity of the meshulachim, who covered every state from Maine to California.

The Sephardim, tired of opposing the Ashkenazim in North America, retired, and confined their attention to Italy, the Barbary States (today Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya), Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Persia, India, Turkestan, etc.

Joseph G. Wilson, the United States consul at Jerusalem, in his approval of the project dated Feb. 10, 1879, said that "a responsible agency for the distribution of their charities may be the means of great and lasting good," and promised cooperation to the best of his power.

Being unable to convince those clamoring for separation the Central Committee effected a settlement in 1901 on a basis of two-thirds for themselves and one-third for the Kolel America from all collections made in the United States and Canada.

When the Jewish Encyclopedia was published in 1906, the Hebrew and Jewish press were almost unanimous in criticizing the halukkah, principally for the reasons: (1) it promoted mendicancy and pauperism; (2) it encouraged idleness and thriftlessness; (3) it fostered divisions between the Sephardim and Ashkenazim; (4) it gave the controlling rabbis too much power to hamper and prevent modern schools for manual labor and secular knowledge; (5) the distributions were made unjustly, with many who do not need or deserve aid being beneficiaries, while others, like the Yemenite Jews and the extremely poor, were ignored.

It was even claimed that the halukkah managers opposed the introduction of agriculture as a means of ameliorating the condition of the poor, and that they were hostile to the Zionist movement for fear it might interfere with them and end their power.

The rabbis, however, disclaimed any intention on their part to oppose agriculture and industry for the young and coming generation, so long as a proper religious training was not neglected.

[1] In the aftermath of World War I, the halukka system continued to splinter, with the formation of groups such as Tomchei Yotsei Anglia for the support of scholars originally from England.