Jacob Frank

Merchant
Frank was born in Korolowka, Podolia, as Jacob b. Judah Leib. His family was middle class, and his father was a contractor and merchant. Frank Frank was educated in Czernowitz and Sniatyn, and after that lived for several years in Bucharest where he started to pursue his business career. In Bucharest he began to earn his living as a dealer in cloth, precious stones, and various other articles. Between 1745 and 1755 his trade took him through the Balkans and as far as Smyrna in Anatolia.

Jacob Frank spent much of his time in the company of followers of the pseudo Messiah Shabbetai Zevi in Smyrna and Salonika. He was probably acquainted with the sect from his early years, as the sect had taken root in many communities in Podolia, Bukovina, and Walachia during the first half of the 18th century. Late in 1755 Frank made his first public appearance in Podolia as the leader of a new movement. He posed as a Sephardi Jew, a Turkish subject, and for this reason was called a Frank, Yiddish for Sephardi, and his followers were called Frankists. After his death in 1791, he was succeeded by his daughter Eva, who was proclaimed the female principle of the faith.