Still Running Off at the Keyboard

JACOB FRANK

The Awareness Center, a Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, offers this description of Jacob Frank:

From among these secret circles of the Shabbethaians came the founder of the Frankist sect, Jacob Frank, born in Podolia about 1726. His father was expelled from the community for belonging to the secret society of hebiists, and moved to Wallachia, where the influence of the Turkish Shabbethaians was strongly felt. While still a boy at school Frank displayed an aversion to Jewish learning founded on the Talmud, and afterward often styled himself "a plain man" or "an untutored man." In the capacity of a traveling merchant he often entered Turkey; there he was named "Frank," a name generally given in the East to a European; and there he lived in the centers of contemporary Shabbethaianism—Salonica and Smyrna.

THE OCCULT UNDERGROUND by James Webb also documents the continuation of Sabbatianism in Poland through Jacob Frank:

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Central European Jewry generally, and Polish Jewry in particular, underwent a series of convulsions. The first concerned the doctrine of the self-proclaimed Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi (1625-75), whose followers preached a new interpretation of the Cabala for a coming new age. One of the most important strongholds of Sabbatianism was Lithuania; one of the most active Sabbatian preachers flourished in Wilno itself. Now, the crucial importance of Sabbatianism is that its Messiah apostasized--became in fact a convert to Islam. There then arose a powerful school of thought which justified apostasy on the grounds that, although the essential purity of the true Cabala could not be harmed, the appearances must be spat upon; and that apostasy was therefore a virtue. This idea of what Professor Scholem calls "the holiness of sin" is a variation on the theories we have observed in some sorts of Gnostic: that the world and its appearances can and indeed must be treated with complete disregard, that the adept is free to do anything he chooses. Twice large groups of Sabbatians apostasized from the Jewish faith in the belief that to do so was the only way to salvation. The second time this organized desertion occurred was in 1759 in the East Galician district of Poland when the Sabbatian prophet, Jacob Frank, led his followers in a body into the Catholic Church. There thus existed a "fifth column" within the ranks of Polish Catholicism, whose mystical object in joining the Catholic Church had been largely to demean themselves in the eyes of the world and whose interior spiritual traditions were wholly other--Jewish, Cabalistic, and in all things Traditional.

Before the death of Jacob Frank in 1791 there had appeared in the areas of Russia and Poland where Sabbatianism was strongest yet another Jewish revivalist movement known as Hassidism. Its founder, the mystic Israel Baal Shem, was responsible for placing the emphasis on an interpretation of the popular elements in the Cabala in an attempt to make of Jewish Tradition a mass movement. In this his followers were largely successful; and during the great age of Hasidism (1760-1810) the new popular Cabalism registered substantial successes even in the face of the strictly orthodox Judaism of the Lithuanian Rabbis. Thus, in addition to the presence of large numbers of converted Frankists, Polish mysticism was augmented by a popular Cabalistic revival, which may well have rendered the often abstruse doctrines of the Jewish mystical philosophers more intelligible to a Gentile. Judaeo-Christian sects sprang up throughout Poland and Russia, with rituals based on esoteric doctrine--and, most significantly, worshipping a Napoleon-Messiah. There can be no doubt that this turn in the affairs of Polish Jewry was to a large extend responsible for the theories of Polish Messianism. (Webb, p. 252-253)

The Jewish Encyclopedia takes note of the Messianic thinking as well:

Messianism at the end of the seventeenth century assumed a mystical coloring, and the open popular movement was transformed into a secret sectarian cult. A half-Jewish, half-Mohammedan sect of Shabbethaians was established in Turkey. In Poland, and particularly in Podolia and Galicia, there were formed numerous secret societies of Shabbethaians known among the people as "Shabbethai Hebiists," or "Shebs" (according to the Western pronounciation of "Shabbethai"). In expectation of the great Messianic revolution the members of these societies threw off the burden of strict Jewish dogma and discarded many relgious laws and customs. The mystical cult of the Shebs included the element of both asceticism and sensuality: some did penance for their sins, subjected themselves to self-inflicted torture, and "mourned for Zion"; others disregarded the strict rules of chastity characteristic of Judaism, and at times gave themselves over to licentiousness. The Polish rabbis attempted the extermination of the "Shabbethaian heresy" in the assembly of Lemberg (1722) and elsewhere, but could not fully succeed, as it was kept alive mostly in secret circles which had something akin to a Masonic organization.

Two thoughts occur. Was this "self-inflicted torture" akin to what takes place in the inner circle of Opus Dei? Was this the source of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an organization which today lists among its linked organizations the Neo-Sabbatianism of Donmeh-West?

The Jewish Virtual Library notes the revolutionary spirit inspired by Frankism.

Accompanied by his daughter, Frank repeatedly traveled to Vienna, and succeeded in gaining the favor of the court. The pious Maria Theresa regarded him as a disseminator of Christianity among the Jews, and it is even said that Joseph II was favorably inclined to the young Eve Frank. Ultimately the sectarian plans of Frank were found out here also; he was obliged to leave Austria, and moved with his daughter and his suite to Offenbach, a small German town. Here he assumed the title of "Baron of Offenback," and lived as a wealthy nobleman, receiving money from his Polish and Moravian adherents, who made frequent pilgrimages to Offenbach. On the death of Frank (1791) Eve became the "holy mistress" and the leader of the sect. As time went on the number of pilgrims and the supply of money constantly diminished, while Eve continued to live in her accustomed luxury. She finally became involved in debt, and died neglected in 1816. Frankist agents acted in times of French Revolution, like Moses Dobruchka who entered the Jacobines as Janius Frey and ascended to the top of Freemasonry. Many of the Frankist saw Napoleon Bonaparte as a potential Messiah.

The Frankists scattered in Poland and Bohemia were gradually transformed from feigned to real Catholics. Their descendants merged into the surrounding Christian population. The sect disappeared without leaving any traces in Judaism, they become (sic) the source of Polish gentry of Jewish origins.

Question...Did the sect leave any traces in Catholicism?

William H. Kennedy, in an excerpt from LUCIFER'S LODGE: SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, titled "Messiahs in the Stream" cites the emergence of Jacob Frank:

The next Messiah to emerge was Jacob Frank (1726-91). Frank hoodwinked the Hapsburg Emperor and Empress into believing that he was God and that sex magic was the real gospel of Jesus Christ. Some 40 years after Frank's death Mormon founder Joseph Smith began espousing similar ideas in the United States.

The religion of Sabbatai Zevi is still being practiced today according to E. Michael Jones. In an article in CULTURE WARS magazine, May, 2003, titled "Rabbi Dresner's Dilemma: Torah v. Ethnos", a review of Dresner's book CAN FAMILIES SURVIVE IN PAGAN AMERICA? Among several references to Sabbatianism, he quotes Luke Ford who ran a website devoted to the discussion of pornography in Hollywood:

Luke Ford makes a similar point in his discussion of Jewish involvement in pornography. 'Why does porn attract so many non-Jewish [i.e., Sabbatian] Jews?' Because 'even when Jews live in a society that welcomes them instead of harassing them, many Jews hate the majority culture.' Pornography is a way of weakening the majority culture by moral subversion.

He makes a Jewish/Catholic connection with regard to Poland as well with this statement:

Even when Catholics are involved [in pornography], they are generally involved on Jewish terms. According to one industry insider, 'the leading male performers through the 1980s came from secular Jewish upbringings and the females from Roman Catholic day schools' The standard porn scenario became as a result a Polish Jewish fantasy, the horny Jew schtupping the Catholic shiksa....Pornography becomes a way of defiling Christian women...is another way of defiling Christianity and all that it stands for.

Quoting Al Goldstein, publisher of SCREW, he writes: "'The only reason that Jews are in pornography', Goldstein responded, 'is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism sucks. We don't believe in authoritarianism.'"

If that isn't Sabbatianism attempting to defile, it is the same philosophy of "holy sin" that Sabbatianism subscribed to.

Jones also speaks of "Shabbetai Zevi's ecstatic sexual messianism." He cites "latent messianic passions that pointed to a new era of fraternal 'universalism' of belief for mankind," and also indicates that Freud was a follower of the Jewish false Messiah Shabbetai Zevi.