I found some pretty interesting stuff yesterday, about the Frankists.

You know, the Frankist-Sabbateans who everyone likes to pretend disappeared 200 years ago.

As if. Halavai, if only.

Long story short, an English missionary copied and translated a 70 page description of them that was made in a book by Peter Beer, in 1826, and published that book as a separate work.

You can see it and download it HERE.

The book is called: ‘A Brief Account of the Zoharite Jews’.

Zoharite Jews = Frankists, although they didn’t call themselves that at all.

They called themselves ‘believers’, ma’aminim, and everyone who didn’t believe in Shabtai Tzvi was called a kofer, or heretic.

And the book they reverenced – pretty much the only Jewish work they reverenced, by this point – was the Zohar HaKadosh.

That’s why they called themselves ‘Zoharites’, at least sometimes.

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It’s a quick read, quite easy to get through – and it has a few very interesting bits of information in it.

Here are the bits that caught my eye:

Page 13:

The rabbis were fearing an ‘entire subversion of Judaism’ under the Sabbateans, because so very many people, particularly leading rabbis and kabbalists, were Sabbateans.

Shabtai Tzvi was packed off to a fort in Belgrade, Bosnia – and that is where he is meant to have died on September 10, 1676. 

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Page 16 – the aliyah of the ‘Sabbatean Missionaries’ Yehuda HaChassid to Eretz Yisrael, in 1700.

This bit is quite important, as our ‘historians’ have almost totally covered-up that so many of the oldest Jewish inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael from the 1700s were actually Sabbateans… So let’s quote a big chunk:

At the beginning of the eighteenth century,the Sabbathians had so much increased in number and influence, that the Rabbies of the East and of various principal cities in Europe, apprehending a total subversion of what they conceived to be the true faith, issued anathemas against them.

This step roused the opposite party to renewed exertions ; and in the year 1700, about one hundred and twenty Missionaries were sent out from Poland, with Rabbi Jehude Hachassid at their head, who went about Bohemia, Moravia, the whole of Germany and Holland, preaching repentance in the name of Sabbathæi Tzevi ; and
exhorting their countrymen to repair to Jerusalem, as the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.

And as these itinerants lived a most self-denying life,-abstaining from meats, fasting several days in theweek, and attending to frequent ablutions, they soon gained the name of Chasidim (Saints), and their preaching Sabbathæi Tzevi to be the Messiah, was generally received. Such success attended their exertions, that in the course of the same year, fifteen hundred Jews from various parts of Germany and Holland, had congregated at Nicolsburgh in Moravia, and emigrated into Palestine, under the guidance of Jehuda Hachassid.

But, shortly after the arrival of these adventurers in Jerusalem, they had to encounter a most active opposition and persecution from their countrymen, so that many, in order to escape further molestation from the Jews, embraced Mahometanism, and of those, who succeeded in returning to Europe, whither they were pursued by letters of anathema and a cry of heresy, the majority joined the Christian Church ; amongst whom, Rabbi Wolf Levy deserves especial mention, (formerly Chief Rabbin of Lublin, and nephew to Rabbi Jehuda Hachassid) as well as Rabbi Nathanael and R. Simcha Hachassid.

The two Rabbies, Chajim Malach, and Nehemiah Chion, who remained attached to Judaism after their return to Europe, published several works in support of the Messiahship of Sabbathæi Tzevi and his doctrines’ , which they repeatedly spread over a great part of Europe, and gained many proselytes, especially in Poland.

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R Wolf levy became: FRANCIS LOTHARI PHILLIPI – a catholic surgeon.

(See HERE for details, page 226.)

And that whole Sabbatean ‘chassid’ family actually had the surname: SEGAL Ha-LEVY.

I have a theory, that all these ‘new sabbatian-xtians’ had their Jewish names changed or whitewashed, so their descendants and relatives could seamlessly blend back into the Jewish community and continue to lead it, and subvert it, from within.

The modus operandi was to pretend like all these Sabbateans were ‘small dudes’, nobodies, from nowhere-ville, not connected to anyone rich, influential and important.

I think that’s BS – they were all leading rabbis, part of the leadership matrix, just everyone kept changing the names of the people who ‘went xtian’ so it became hard to keep up with how all these families with ‘yichus’ were totally and utterly compromised, repeatedly, at the spiritual level.

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I think ‘Wolf Levy’ probably had something to do with ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin who conveniently ‘died’ in 1699 (i.e. just as Yehuda HaChassid’s convey was leaving to Israel…).

He was the son-in-law of the MAHADURA BATRA Moshe Bunems Meisels, also Chief Rabbi of Lublin – and his family tree is totally crawling with known Sabbateans, like the SHOR family, and the EISENSTADTS.

The MAHADURA BATRA was the S-I-L of R SHMUEL EDELS, the MAHARSHA – and another S-I-L of the MAHARSHA was R YITZHAK HALEVI-SEGAL SPITZKOPF, the ABD of Krakow.

The Rav wasn’t kidding when he said the Jewish cemetery of Krakow is full of non-Jews…. just, we didn’t understand what he was really saying.

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But park that for now, because there are few more interesting things in that book from 1826:

In the year 1730, two more powerful champions arose in support of Sabbathæi Tzevi and his doctrines, in the persons of Jekuthiel, a physician of Wilna in Poland, and Moses Chajun Surgato, of Padua.

The latter, was so distinguished for his eminent attainments in Hebrew learning and composition, that he gained over to his party, several of the most celebrated Rabbies of that time; amongst whom deserve notice, Rabbi Samuel Bassan, Chief Rabbi at Padua; and R. Samson, Chief Rabbi of Amona, who defended the Sabbathian doctrines against the attacks of their antagonists, Rabbies Moses Chagis, and Joseph Abuhf, the former Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and the latter of Venice. The following Rabbies also joined Surgato on his missionary tours, and went about preaching in the name of Sabbathæi Tzevi : R. Samuel Essinger, of Munster, R. Moses Prager, of Sklow, R. Abraham Hertz, of Lublin, and R. Moses Cohen, of Resdal.

I think MOSES CHAJUN SURGATO is a misspelling of the RAMCHAL.

I am not getting into a discussion about him, at this stage. But ‘JEKUTHIEL, a physician of Wilna in Poland’, was initially part of the RAMCHAL’s circle in Padua – and the Rav has spoken about him.

Let’s go back to THIS post on my site, snippet below:

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This is a snippet from February 2022, now published in CONVERSATIONS II:

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RAMCHAL AND GORDON

Each hour, [The Ramchal] he’d see angels, until this was told to the rabbis of Venice.

And Rabbi Yeshaya Bassan was his shver. R’ Yeshaya Bassan told him to lower his profile, the he should keep things censored – but he couldn’t do it. Every quarter of an hour, he saw an angel.

And there was one person, called ‘Gordon’, he was a student of the ‘Gaon’, and he was a little ruined.

And he came to Padua to learn in the university, and when he saw the Ramchal, he made teshuva. And he heard how he would converse with angels – he heard how he was speaking.

The Ramchal was shut up in a room, but each quarter of an hour, he was talking to someone, until he revealed that this was the Angel Gabriel, and the Angel Michael, and the Angel Nuriel. Every quarter of an hour, a new angel would come.

And so, he [i.e. Gordon] publicised this. This was around 5480. In 5488 (1728), this was exactly 50 years after ‘that man’ – Shabtai Tzvi – died [in 1678]. So they suspected that he was also a Sabbatean, so all the Venetian rabbis excommunicated him.

And he wrote Zohar, he wrote a whole Zohar. They took the Zohar away from him, and just left the 70 tikkunim that he wrote on ‘Bereishit – before the eyes of all Israel’. This remains.

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[Translated from the Rav’s comments in the ‘Be’er B’Sadeh’ sefer.] Shivivei Or 309

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We have the Rav’s testimony that YEKUTIEL GORDON was not coming from a good place, spiritually.

(BTW, Gordon seems to be part of the wider EIBSHITZ family, but good luck pinning that down in any concrete way… As usual, it’s all been totally scrubbed.)

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In RUSSIA’S FIRST MODERN JEWS, page 27, GORDON is introduced like this:

“One can only speculate as to how Latin manuscripts reached Schick’s hand.

A number of young Lithuanian Jews traveled to Padua, Italy, to pursue a medical education and it is likely that they brought scientific writings back to Lithuania after their course of study.

One such medical student, Yekutiel Gordon of Vilna (known for his membership in the mystical-messianic circle of R Moshe Hayim Luzzatto), resided in Shklov during the 1730s and 1740s, and practised medicine there.

He may well have been the conduit through which the writings of Cardano, Viete and Euclid reached Shklov.”

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Baruch Shick connects us to both the Vilna Gaon, and also, to the Alter Rebbe of Chabad.

Go back and read this post:

Boruch Shick of Shklov – is the Alter Rebbe’s grandson

And he has a bunch of interesting descendants, including former Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin.

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And Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva Aharon Kotler.

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And Amram Blau, founder of Neturei Karta.

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Tov.

What’s really, really interesting, is that if you go to this Russian-language genealogy website, you’ll see that ‘SEGAL-HALEVIs’ keep on marrying ‘CHASSIDs’, like this:

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But back in the carefully curated GENI world HERE, the surname ‘CHASSID’ (which links us to the Sabbatean preacher Yehuda HaChassid) has been replaced with the surname…MEISELS.

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Fancy that!

Here’s what I said above:

I think ‘Wolf Levy’ probably had something to do with ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin who conveniently ‘died’ in 1699 (i.e. just as Yehuda HaChassid’s convey was leaving to Israel…).

If you go HERE, you will see that yes indeed, there is a ‘R YEHUDA LEIB MEISELS CHASSID’, who is indeed an ‘uncle’ of ISRAEL ISSUR BONEMS MEISELS, the Chief Rabbi of Lublin.

Fancy that!

And, you will be shocked! shocked! to learn that this ‘R YEHUDA LEIB MEISELS CHASSID’ was actually a really important guy, in the SHACH’s family tree (who in turn, was in the REMA’s family tree), and the ABD of Przemyśl & Lviv – very big, important cities, Jewishly.

He’s meant to have died in 1694 – just as ‘Yehuda HaChassid’ was going all over Europe as a Sabbatean missionary. Isn’t that lucky? And of course, they have no idea when he was born. Of course not.

His daughter is that same ‘BLIMA CHASSID / MEISELS’ mentioned above, who links us straight into a whole bunch of Sabbateans that I have been researching for years…

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Here’s the last bit I’m going to quote from that book on the ‘Zoharites’ (Frankists…), published in 1826.

Join me on page 43, footnote 2, where’s he’s talking about how the Zoharite/Frankists have a different name in Imperial Russia:

2. Where they are called Frankists ; or, in the language of an imperial Ukase, published respecting them, March 25. 1817, Christian Israelites. Many of them are respectable merchants, or fill places under government ; and, though members of the Christian church, they retain many of the Jewish ceremonies, and only intermarry among themselves.

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The key bit to notice is that in 1826, it was clearly stated that FRANKISTS = CHRISTIAN ISRAELITES in Russia.

And we covered that ‘UKASE’ back in THIS post on Di Muma Leah, like this:

Under Alexander I’s conversion program, any Jews who converted would be granted Russian land that would be held by them and their descendants in perpetuity, as ‘Israelite Christians’ – for as long as they stayed being xtians.

Part of the reason we never hear about Alexander I’s program for ‘Israelite Christians’ in Russia is because this is exactly the same time that certain ‘rebbes’ and their acolytes started acquiring large tracts of land across Russia.

It’s always puzzled me how this was the case, given that the Russian Imperial policy was that Jews were forbidden from owning land.

The more I’ve researched this subject, the more that it appears that the main  exceptions to this rule was important contractors to the Russian government / military; and ‘Israelite Christians’ – Jews who’d agreed to be baptised, but who otherwise were permitted to live as proto ‘Jews-for-Jesus’, in these special settlements set aside by Tsar Alexander I.

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Those land-owning ‘Rebbes’ are of course, the Rebbes of Chabad.

The Alter Rebbe’s son, Moshe, was proven to have converted to Christianity by researcher Prof. David Assaf, who found his baptismal certificates in the Russian archives.

The facts all ‘fit’ beautifully.

Here is the snippet about the Ukase itself, referred to in the book about the Zoharites:

On March 25th, 1817, Easter Sunday, the Tsar issued a ukase concerning the converted Jews of Russia, that lifted civil disabilities off baptised Jews, and decreed they should henceforth be known as ‘Israeli Christians’.

This decree was published in Russian, German and Polish, and also announced the establishment of a new ‘Society of Israeli Christians’, to ensure the material well-being of baptised Jews who now found themselves cut off from their old support networks in the Jewish community, but still barred from being accepted as true Christians by their Russian neighbors.

The formal task of the society was essentially to encourage Jews to be baptized.

Another carrot that the Tsar tried to use to encourage more Russian Jews to convert was the promise of free land grants in the Crimea, which Russia had recently conquered, and was keen to colonise.[1]

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I’m going to stop there for today.

Some time soon, I want to take a much closer look at the Sabbatean theology regarding ‘an active messiah’ who ‘makes geula happen’, instead of sitting back and waiting for God to bring it in His own time.

Or, to put that in more modern terms: We want Moshiach NOW!!!

They’ve had us all fooled for 200+ years…

TBC.