The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 (Jewish Culture and Contexts)

Having spent a good 55 years of my life studying the history of Europe in considerable detail, I had never come across either any thorough discussion of S. Tzvi or Jacob Frank until just recently, when in the aftermath of the 2016 US election, with within the torrent of intensely polarizing invective I suddenly began to hear modern Americans, both Jews and Christians, begin to speak of 'the coming of The Messiah' as if it was actually unfolding before our very eyes, on TV. A determined search on the subject of recent messianic movements brought me to this history. I read Professor Maciejko's work cover to cover after first reading Matt Goldish's, that I also greatly appreciated for its scholarship. Processing the information within the framework of my own extensive studies of European Literature, Philosophy and the history of Christianity, I feel as if my eyes have been opened to an extremely important aspect of European social history that for too long remained beyond the scope of most college-level texts on the subject. Because of the tragic decision by various priesthoods on both sides of the divide that set Jews apart from non-Jews wherever they lived to compartmentalize their knowledge, most European non-Jews believed Judaism to be a monolith of conformity. Little was known of the extensive contacts and communications between rabbis and Christian clergy, not just for purposes of debating doctrine, but also to coordinate the pursuit of shared goals. Unless one knows exactly how interconnected all these various communities were as they lived side by side, one cannot properly comprehend not only the scale, shocking violence & monumental impact of the Holocaust on all of Europe, but also how radical modern attitudes about tolerance, freedom and the erasing of social boundaries exploded upon the collective human consciousness over the course of the entire 19th century, beginning with the Edwardian Age and to our own time. Professor Maciejko emphasizes that his work is not focused on the political dimensions of Frank's activities. Rather, he chooses to frame this priceless history in the religious, theological and Biblical context. The title itself, of course, derives from the famous verse in Exodus that defines as "mixed multitudes" the diverse crowds that followed the people of Moses out of Egypt. (Today we might refer to them as the hoi polloi, or the riffraff, or the rabble.) The intense debates provoked by the declaration of first S. Tsvi and then J. Frank that they were the Messiah, Divine, invincible, infallible were couched precisely in these terms: each side calling each other "descendants of the riffraff," meaning impure and "not The True Israel." Reading about these controversies is very important, although inevitably also very sad. Extreme obsession with "purity" and the firm grip of rabbinic micromanagement after centuries of constraint led to the inevitable reaction. In the persons of Nathan of Gaza, Shabbatai himself, the Frank & subsequent iterations of these 'doctrinal revolutionaries,' the baby was decisively thrown out with the bathwater, and chaos ensued. History records the broad strokes of events; it does not take a huge imagination to grasp the enormity of the human drama that played out in thousands upon thousands of communities, households and congregations, all across Europe, and even beyond its borders as the radical new teachings, the antinomianism and the outright depravity that soon followed began to spread across the globe. Who is to blame? I will let the readers come to their own conclusions. Personal experience has taught me, as a practicing and scholarly Christian, that extremely strict rules, rigidity of traditionalism, an insistence on unquestioning submission to a single (almost invariably male) living 'saint' or 'prophet' or 'elder,' combined with a rejection of any kind of independent thought or personal direct connection to God as, essentially, 'unsanctioned spiritual freelancing,' will ultimately bring about the destruction of an entire religious school of thought. Plant any tree: what happens over time? Roots grow, expanding to great distances. They cannot be contained or told to grow a certain way, any more than leaves can be told to all be identical. At the same time, simply inverting rules, re-defining "good" as "bad" and "bad" as "good" -- for example, suggesting incest might be holy, or not a crime against the submissive victim -- is not any kind of welcome solution, either. Frank achieved many of his objectives (magnificently described in Chapter 9 of Maciejko's work), but at what price to the people he was closest to? And what was the ultimate result, for all concerned? One form of rigidity being replaced with its mirror image does not change the fundamental problem at the heart of the ideology: obsessions with "purity," "supremacy" (which is what "purity" ultimately stands for), conformity, meeting unattainable standards of perfection on a daily basis for an entire lifetime Will Never Work. There is nothing holy about setting impossible tasks for oneself or others. Today, we see the struggles of so many different people from all over who are still coping with the aftermath of their parents' or grandparents' rather bizarre beliefs, whether that their daughters should be veiled from head to toe, or that they should be put on permanent birth control as soon as they begin to menstruate. We have parents who decide that if a four year old boy picks up a Barbie, he must be secretly signalling his need to change his reproductive organs in order to become, outwardly, a girl. How did we get to this point of so much agonizing over fairly simple and straightforward riddles of human identity? Through the activities of Tsvi and Frank, that resonated, ultimately, with millions of people, both those who supported them and those who fought them tooth and nail. In the middle of all this, as I discovered from this particular work, came certain more fanatically disposed Catholic prelates from Poland, each with his own complex motivations, choosing one side or the other, some responding to bribes, others to flattery or esoteric arcana. Pawel Maciejko's work won important prizes because it is meticulously researched, scrupulously documented and yet easy to follow. This is a scholarly work, but equally one a person with minimal knowledge of any aspect of the multi-faceted subject matter can readily enjoy. It is well organized, so that one can read it in one long gulp, or over a period of time, section by section. The writing itself is lucid, restrained, objective but also vivid enough and detailed enough to make many of its scenes and characters come to life. For those who have never visited Warsaw, I will take this opportunity to point out that it is an absolute delight to see in its present state, very affordable, supremely hospitable -- and home to a stunning Museum of Jewish History in Poland with hundreds of expertly curated exhibits. In a word, I would recommend this book to anyone, of any faith and especially of no faith, because it is an excellent addition for any audience to include in their reading list on Modern European History. It should be included in all college curricula on the subject: it is time to get a handle on these cultural clashes that ultimately through dialectic and fusion ultimately gave us the society we have today -- one that we would like to keep, and advance, preferably without more wild messianic upheavals from any desperate, mentally ill entrepreneur. What Tsvi & Frank did *was* harmful, but why they did it can be understood. Once again, we are reminded that Moderation is the key to happiness, in all things, including in any religious practice. Imposing Conformity on every person in sight, whatever your religious school of thought, and certainly even if you are an atheist: Always A Bad Idea.

The Frankists were offshoots of the Sabbatian Heresy which began in the Ottoman Empire during the 1500s. After converting to Islam the donmeh broke off into different groups. One such group was the faction under Jacob Frank. Arriving in Podolia in 1755, Frank and his group engaged in a ritual that would shock the lical Jewish community and involve tge Catholic authority. While there behavior was blasphemous tge Catholic clergy sided with the Frankists over the rabbinic establishment. Later Jacib Frank would offer to convert his sect to Catholic religion. Of course they would keep certaun Jewish Practices in tact. They would also ask for territory and tge right to have a militia which could be used against the Ottomans. This fell through. Eventually he would fund himself locked away un a monastery that revered the mother Mary. Eventually he settled in Offenbach where he had a small mini kingdom. He passed from a stroke in 1791.The book discusses the beginning and growth of the Sabbattian movement that pushes through to greater development of trends in Europe and the Polish Jewish community. For those interested in the donmeh, this book is for you.

The book provided a long needed discussion of the history of Jacob Frank and his multitude of followers. The book describes Frank's use of Sabtai Zvi as a means of developing his own following. Frank used his Jewish followers when it suited him; he tried to pass himself off as the Messiah to attract Jewish followers and when necessary Frank became a believing Catholic. The book provides a fairly complete discussion of the life of Jacob Frank. It is unfortunate that there are no other good books on this subject.

Excellent scholarship about a very convoluted and sad chapter in Jewish history. The author knows the sources, the main players, and the context. Very honest depiction of some very bad people and some very good people.

This is a fascinating, generally very readable book about the many incarnations of Jacob Frank. It is very detailed and surprisingly readable.What a fascinating figure in Jewish/ Catholic history.

Given what we understand about the dedication of our ancestors to their Jewish beliefs, the Frankist movement is hand to understand. it takes a superb amount of scholarship in several languages and traditions to make sense of this movement. the author of The Mixed Multitude makes it possible to comprehend this aberration.

Recommended to whoever is interested in the subject, in the period and in jewish history of central&east europe , whether a scholar or a layman of the subject

good!!

Le livre donne une vision très claire des divers protagonistes de la crise qui a conduit à la fausse conversion au christianisme de certains membres de la secte sabbatéenne de Jacob Frank. Le sabbatianisme a connu des courants très divers, depuis le piétisme le plus fervent jusqu'à l'antinomisme le plus débridé. Mais jusqu'à Frank les membres des diverses sectes sabbatéennes se gardaient bien de provoquer le rabbinat. Personnage grossier, manipulateur, peu instruit mais doté d'une appétence pour le pouvoir qui rappelle celle de bien des politicards d’aujourd’hui, Jacob Frank a osé défier ouvertement le judaïsme officiel, incitant les rabbins "orthodoxes" bien que souvent kabbalistes, à saisir les autorités catholiques et à leur demander de l'aide pour éradiquer cette secte malfaisante qui rejetait les enseignements spirituels et moraux de la torah, des livres sapientiaux, des livres historiques et des prophètes, enseignements communs aux juifs, aux chrétiens et aux musulmans. Hélas pour les rabbins talmudistes et kabbalistes, les autorités chrétiennes ont vu là une occasion inespérée d’en découdre avec les "juifs talmudistes". Et ces autorités ont aidé la secte perverse et antinomiste de Frank à transformer son opposition au tanakh en répudiation du talmud, allant même jusqu'à exiger la dénonciation des crimes rituels censés avoir été perpétrés par les juifs rabbiniques.Le livre décrit avec une extrême minutie la pensée et la stratégie des divers acteurs de la crise, en particulier de certains grands noms du judaïsme comme Jacob Emden et Jonathan Eybeschütz ou encore de nombreux aventuriers aux marges du christianisme et du judaïsme.

An outstanding work of ground-breaking importance in an underexplored area of Jewish history. A meticulously crafted piece of scholarship which sheds light not only on events of the past but, like all great histories, has an uncanny resonance in the contemporary Jewish world.

An amazingly detailed and insightful study of Jacob Frank and Frankism. One of its kind, long overdue and a truly delightful and highly informative read!

excellent

ras