June 20 1757 – 2 Tammuz 5517
Frankists – the break-away Jewish sect named after its founder, Jacob Frank – engaged leaders of the mainstream Jewish community in a public debate on the validity of the Talmud. Under the auspices of the local Polish bishop, Nicholas Dombovsky, the debate was decided against rabbinic Judaism, allowing the anti-Semitic bishop to take a leaf out of the Western European powers’ books from 500 years earlier, and burn thousands of volumes of the Talmud. The Frankists’ faith was based largely on Kabbalism and the Zohar, which they perverted to allow licentious sexual gatherings and rituals alien to Judaism. Eventually, Frank himself and most of his followers converted to Christianity, although the leader’s messianic declarations, claiming that he was a reincarnation of Sabbetai Zvi and God’s representative on earth, resulted in understandable tension with the Church.