The Shadar–host economy: new perspectives on the travels of emissaries from the Holy Land

“Shadars” were rabbinic emissaries from Ottoman Palestine who raised funds in the diaspora. While Israeli historians studied the Shadar for his status as a representative of the Palestinian yishuv, this study focuses on the reciprocal relationship between the Shadar and his host community. Focusing on Hayyim Yoseph David Azulay, the preeminent Shadar, I portray this relationship as an economy, in which two sides give and receive “goods.” The primary gift is the funds for the Holy Land, but we shall see that the Shadar and his hosts exchanged material, social, intellectual and spiritual goods.