A Tile Bet Frank Rishme Ofebakh
Leipzig: Druglin, (1923). First edition. Hardcover. 12mo. 23pp. (1), plus 7 b/w prints. Original quarter vellum over green cloth. Youthful essay by the future third president of the State of Israel Zalman Shazar (Rubashov) on the infamous eighteenth century messianic claimant Jacob Frank. Frank led a large number of Jews in the Podolia region of Ukraine to convert to Catholicism in 1759. Soon afterwards he was imprisoned in the monastery of Czestochowa by the Polish government on charges of heresy. He was freed in 1772 after the region came under Russian control due to the first partition of Poland. He then left Eastern Europe for Brno in Moravia and eventually to Offenbach in Germany. Due to his magnetic personality and claims of supernatural power and royal birth, he succeeded in building an extravagant court that attracted the patronage of both the Austrian and Russian monarchies. Frank proved to be of interest to later Zionism due to how he ran his court as a military camp, creating out of his followers the first modern Jewish army. Includes numerous well known drawings related to the Frankist movement such as the portraits of Jacob Frank and his daughter Eve as well as Jacob Frank's deathbed. Text in Hebrew. Endpapers sunned. Overall in very good condition. vg. Item #33334
Price: $750.00