Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

May 19, 2022

The Complicated Legacy of Eva Frank, Perhaps the Only Jewish, Female Messianic Figure

Jacob Frank and his daughter Eva claimed the mantle of Shabbetai Tzvi.

Five years before Eva Frank was born in 1756 in what is now Ukraine, her father Jacob had declared himself the successor of the 17th-century false messiah Shabbetai Tzvi. As Shira Telushkin writes, the elder Frank amassed thousands of followers before being excommunicated by Jewish authorities in 1756. He responded by converting to Catholicism, along with 3,000 of his disciples. Eva, raised in this strange religious atmosphere, followed in her father's footsteps to become a radical spiritual leader.

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