Jacob Frank

Jacob Joseph Frank (Hebrew: יעקב פרנק; Yiddish: יעקבֿ פֿראַנק; Polish: Jakub Józef Frank; born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – 10 December 1791) was a Polish-Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) and also of the biblical patriarch Jacob. The religious authorities of the Jewish community excommunicated Frank and his followers due to his heretical doctrines that included deification of himself as a part of a trinity and other controversial concepts such as neo-Carpocratian "purification through transgression". Frank’s teachings led his sect into scandalous practices, including ritualized orgies, incestuous acts—most notably between fathers and daughters—and the deliberate violation of Jewish moral laws, which he preached were necessary to hasten a messianic redemption through embracing the "abyss" of sin. Frank arguably created a religious movement, now referred to as Frankism, which incorporated aspects of Christianity and Judaism. His followers, known as Frankists, engaged in sexually promiscuous rites, such as the infamous 1756 incident in Lanckoroń, Podolia (now Zarichanka, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine), during which they were allegedly caught dancing around a half-naked woman symbolizing the Shechinah. Historical evidence indicates that Jacob Frank outwardly converted to Islam around 1757 while in the Ottoman Empire. Later, Frankists were encouraged to convert in mass to Catholicism. The development of Frankism was one of the consequences of the messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi. This religious mysticism followed socioeconomic changes among the Jews of Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia.