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 Blood Libel. 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" (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.