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[[Image:Shmuel Salant.jpg|thumb|200px|Rabbi Shmuel Salant]]
[[Image:Shmuel Salant stamp.JPG|thumb|150px|Rabbi [[Shmuel Salant ]] depicted on an Israeli stamp, 2006]]

'''Shmuel Salant''' ([[January 2]], [[1816]] – [[August 16]], [[1909]]) served as the [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazic]] [[Chief Rabbi]] of [[Jerusalem]] and was a renowned [[Talmud]]ist and [[Torah]] scholar.

He was born in [[Białystok]], then part of [[Russia]]. After marrying Toiba (Yonah), the eldest daughter of Rabbi [[Yosef Zundel of Salant]], he adopted his father-in-law's surname. At an early age his lungs became damaged, and he was advised to seek a warm climate. This induced him in 1840 to go with his wife and son Benyamin Beinish to Jerusalem. <ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D04E3D6173EE733A25754C1A96E9C946897D6CF CHIEF RABBI SALANT DIES IN JERUSALEM; Head of the Ashkanezic Congregat... - Article Preview - The New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

En route, in [[Constantinople]], he met and gained the friendship of Sir [[Moses Montefiore]], then on his way to defend the Jews falsely accused in the [[Damascus affair|Damascus Blood Libel]]. Rabbi Salant arrived in Jerusalem in 1841, rejoining his father-in-law and about 500 other Ashkenazim who had preceded him. From 1848 to 1851 he served as a ''meshulach'' (itinerant fund-raiser), visiting the principal cities of [[Lithuania]] and [[Poland]] to collect money for the impoverished Jews of the [[Old Yishuv]]. This age-old practice was termed the [[Chaluka]].

In 1860, Rabbi Salant travelled to [[Germany]], [[Amsterdam]], and [[London]] to collect funds. Upon his return to Jerusalem, he succeeded in ensuring that his contributions were equally divided between the [[Sephardim]] and Ashkenazim. He also collected donations for the building of the [[Hurva Synagogue|Beis Yaakov Synagogue]] in Jerusalem. In 1871 he succeeded Rabbi [[Meir Auerbach]] as chief rabbi of the Ashkenazim.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D04E3D6173EE733A25754C1A96E9C946897D6CF CHIEF RABBI SALANT DIES IN JERUSALEM; Head of the Ashkanezic Congregat... - Article Preview - The New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In 1871, a time of universal poverty and hardship, Rabbi Salant founded the Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis Salant charity to provide for all of Israel's poor and impoverished, [[Sefardi]] and [[Ashkenazi]] alike. In 1888 Rabbi Salant's eyesight began to fail, and a few years later he became blind. This did not stop his extensive activity in communal affairs. In 1900, however, he requested an assistant; Rabbi [[Elijah David Rabinowitz-Teomim]] of Russia was selected for the position, however,(contracted; show full)[[Category:Jews in Ottoman and British Palestine|Salant, Shmuel]]
[[Category:Burials at the Mount of Olives|Salant, Shmuel]]

[[he:שמואל סלנט]]
[[ru:Шмуэль Салант]]

==External links==
*[http://rmbhsalant.com/ Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis Salant charity]