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Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History
We tend to look at the history of Jewish life in a linear way, ignoring or dismissing the influences and the stimulators from beyond the comfort zone of traditional Judaism. But we must ask What were the outside factors that influenced what happened on the inside? How did the Shabbetai Tzvi and Emden-Eybeschutz controversies affect how we live our lives as Jews in the twenty-first century? How did the Get of Cleves controversy influence Jewish law going forward, so that rulings arrived at today are determined by this seemingly marginal episode? The uniting theme of Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs is the very individual personalities of these marginal characters and the impact they had during the time in which they lived. All the mavericks whose lives are explored in this book somehow represent in their individuality and their unique stories aspects of the broader narrative of their eras. What they prove, in all their fascinating oddity, is how aspects of Jewish history which occur outside of the spotlight have a residual effect on what is happening in today's world.
- GenresJewishNonfictionJudaism
231 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2018
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November 29, 2025Immense relief when I reached the conclusion and Dunner did an in-depth overview of his sources (there are no footnotes and there is no bibliography)
December 19, 2018
Rabbi Pini Dunner’s Mavericks Mystics and False Messiahs: Episodes from the Fringe of Jewish History is a fun, light read. Dunner in his characteristic style reconstructs situations and (re)creates dialogue in order to bring the reader into the story.
Dunner chose to focus on specific individuals and episodes; some of which are well-known, and others less so.
The reader is first introduced to the 17th century notorious false Messiah Shabbetai Zvi and the peoples and situations that made him possible. The story is presented in a very linear manner which makes it easy to stay focused and process the information transmitted.
From there, he moves on to discuss the very colorful Polish-born, London-based Jewish mystic, Samuel Falk. I had come across Falk in my research on Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe (it is also indicative of how often -and successfully- Sephardim and Ashkenazim assimilated into each other’s culture). Dunner did not mention this factoid; Falk was apparently the son of a Sephardic Jew who apparently immigrated from somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. His original surname seemed to have been Laniado and he pronounced his prayers in a Sephardic dialect. (this is based on the research by British Chief Rabbi Dr. Herman Adler-from whence Dunner drew his information).
His focus on mystics takes a sharp turn towards the controversial when he devotes considerable space to the infamous fight between Rabbis Yaakov Emden and Yonatan Eybeschutz. I especially appreciated the quote cited from Emden in the introduction to this section whereas “a Rabbinic scholar cannot be ignorant of history and changing times”.
A notorious Jewish divorce case from 18th century Western Europe is put into context in his section on the “Get of Cleves” where Rabbinic power dynamics and Halakhic consensus experienced a standoff.
The very eccentric British convert to Judaism, Lord George Gordon is the focus of Dunner’s next article and it contains no shortage of drama and intrigue.
Rabbi Yehuda Rosenberg, whose more famous grandson was Mordecai Richler, often dubbed “the Canadian Phillip Roth”, is given a proper treatment by Dunner. His exposition on the intersection between fact and fiction is fascinating to say the least.
Finally the book concludes with the 20th century Hungarian adventurer/ rogue Ignac Trebitsch-Lincoln whose life story reads like a work of fiction proving the age old adage, Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Dunner takes pains to point out that he deliberately decided not to include footnotes and copious end-notes in this volume so as not to detract from the focus of the work. I applaud this move, as-in my estimation- this decreases the intimidation factor and makes it more user-friendly.
My only critique is that it could have used a bit more elucidation and detail. In the section on Shabbetai Sevi, for instance, I wish a word about the Donmeh was included. The Donmeh were Shabbetai Sevi’s hardcore followers who emulated his conversion into Islam, yet kept many Jewish traditions and only married among themselves up until recent times (they would also practice heterodox customs such as deliberately eating right before the end of the Ramadan fast).
I also wished that he would have devoted a some space to other individuals and movements. Perhaps I could suggest a sequel. Contenders for a future volume would include characters like: Zusia Zussman, the notorious forger of the Talmud Yerushalmi; Abraham Uri Kovner, forger and correspondent of Dostoyevsky; David Camden de Leon, the South Carlolina-born Sephardic head of the Medical Department of the Confederate States of America; Warder Cresson, America’s consul to Palestine who developed Jerusalem Syndrome and converted to Judaism; Two-Gun Cohen; Moses Wilhelm Shapira; Abraham Firkovich; Seraya Shapshal; Solomon Molkho; Kurban Said; Muhammed Weiss; Emin Pasha; Daniel Burros; Erik Jan Hanussen; Samuel Joseph Shereshevsky and others.
Dunner chose to focus on specific individuals and episodes; some of which are well-known, and others less so.
The reader is first introduced to the 17th century notorious false Messiah Shabbetai Zvi and the peoples and situations that made him possible. The story is presented in a very linear manner which makes it easy to stay focused and process the information transmitted.
From there, he moves on to discuss the very colorful Polish-born, London-based Jewish mystic, Samuel Falk. I had come across Falk in my research on Sephardic Jews who settled in Eastern Europe (it is also indicative of how often -and successfully- Sephardim and Ashkenazim assimilated into each other’s culture). Dunner did not mention this factoid; Falk was apparently the son of a Sephardic Jew who apparently immigrated from somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. His original surname seemed to have been Laniado and he pronounced his prayers in a Sephardic dialect. (this is based on the research by British Chief Rabbi Dr. Herman Adler-from whence Dunner drew his information).
His focus on mystics takes a sharp turn towards the controversial when he devotes considerable space to the infamous fight between Rabbis Yaakov Emden and Yonatan Eybeschutz. I especially appreciated the quote cited from Emden in the introduction to this section whereas “a Rabbinic scholar cannot be ignorant of history and changing times”.
A notorious Jewish divorce case from 18th century Western Europe is put into context in his section on the “Get of Cleves” where Rabbinic power dynamics and Halakhic consensus experienced a standoff.
The very eccentric British convert to Judaism, Lord George Gordon is the focus of Dunner’s next article and it contains no shortage of drama and intrigue.
Rabbi Yehuda Rosenberg, whose more famous grandson was Mordecai Richler, often dubbed “the Canadian Phillip Roth”, is given a proper treatment by Dunner. His exposition on the intersection between fact and fiction is fascinating to say the least.
Finally the book concludes with the 20th century Hungarian adventurer/ rogue Ignac Trebitsch-Lincoln whose life story reads like a work of fiction proving the age old adage, Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Dunner takes pains to point out that he deliberately decided not to include footnotes and copious end-notes in this volume so as not to detract from the focus of the work. I applaud this move, as-in my estimation- this decreases the intimidation factor and makes it more user-friendly.
My only critique is that it could have used a bit more elucidation and detail. In the section on Shabbetai Sevi, for instance, I wish a word about the Donmeh was included. The Donmeh were Shabbetai Sevi’s hardcore followers who emulated his conversion into Islam, yet kept many Jewish traditions and only married among themselves up until recent times (they would also practice heterodox customs such as deliberately eating right before the end of the Ramadan fast).
I also wished that he would have devoted a some space to other individuals and movements. Perhaps I could suggest a sequel. Contenders for a future volume would include characters like: Zusia Zussman, the notorious forger of the Talmud Yerushalmi; Abraham Uri Kovner, forger and correspondent of Dostoyevsky; David Camden de Leon, the South Carlolina-born Sephardic head of the Medical Department of the Confederate States of America; Warder Cresson, America’s consul to Palestine who developed Jerusalem Syndrome and converted to Judaism; Two-Gun Cohen; Moses Wilhelm Shapira; Abraham Firkovich; Seraya Shapshal; Solomon Molkho; Kurban Said; Muhammed Weiss; Emin Pasha; Daniel Burros; Erik Jan Hanussen; Samuel Joseph Shereshevsky and others.
December 20, 2018
In a fascinating new book, “Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes From the Margins of Jewish History,” Rabbi Pini Dunner takes the reader to some of the weirdest stuff that has transpired in the Jewish world over the last 350 years. There are some great sages detailed here, along with some sinners, crazies, charlatans and more.
The subtitle of the book is “Episodes From the Margins of Jewish History,” and Dunner shows that even though many of the events in the book are outliers, they still have a significant effect on the Jewish world even today. Dunner notes that oddities in the Jewish world tend to shed light on what is wrong with the system that produced them. While not a perfect formula, there is indeed a lot to learn from some of the stories in the book.
The book opens with perhaps the most notorious event of the last 400 years, the story of Shabbetai Tzvi. It’s quite easy for us today to superimpose our knowledge and look at the Shabbetai Tzvi debacle with incredulousness. It’s equally hard for us to imagine how the masses, and even one of the greatest sages of the generation, could fall victim to one of the greatest theological frauds of the last 2,000 years.
The success of Shabbetai Tzvi is attributed to myriad reasons, including people not understanding the nature of his severe dipolar disorder. That, combined with their intense longing for moshiach, coalesced with other factors to create a perfect storm for a false messiah.
Shabbetai Tzvi again rears his ugly head in the chapter where Dunner recounts the controversy where Rabbi Yakov Emden accused Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz of being a Sabbatean. R’ Emden felt that the amulets R’ Eybeschutz wrote to help pregnant women contained codes that showed that Shabbetai Tzvi was the messiah and R’ Eybeschutz was a closet Sabbatean.
The Emden/Eybeschutz conflict was certainly one of the most painful, if not most bizarre, rabbinic disputes over the last few hundred years. Ironically, as nefarious as the charges were against R’ Eybeschutz, it is astonishing this epic battle had no residual effect on either on either of these great sages. While the Emden/Eybeschutz episode was well researched, Dunner surprisingly does not reference Rabbi Dr. Sid Leiman, who is one of the most renowned experts on the topic.
In another story, Dunner details the Get of Cleves from 1766. Part of the issue was that the dayanim of the city of Frankfurt refused to publish their legal arguments, or publish refutations of the reasons published by those who opposed them, in reference to a divorce case in the city of Cleves. Since their stance was so contentious, it seemed odd that they refused to back up their views with solid evidence and source-based material.
The Get of Cleves case was in some ways quite similar to the Langer case 200 years later, where chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren refused to publish the details of his ruling, in addition to not sharing the names of the rabbis who signed on to his ruling.
All of the stories in the book are engaging and fascinating. Other topics include the story of the Maharal Hagadah, which was an elaborate forgery; the story of Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln; and more.
The tale of Trebitsch-Lincoln is so bizarre, one almost strains to realize it’s not fiction. Dunner writes that he was born in Hungary to an Orthodox family and was known as Avraham Schwarz in 1879. By the time he dies in 1943, he was a con man, Protestant missionary, Anglican priest, member of the British Parliament for Darlington, German politician and spy, Nazi collaborator and, at his death, a Buddhist monk in China.
This is a most enjoyable book, and its only disappointment is its short page count. Anyone who has watched his videos knows that Rabbi Dunner is a most captivating speaker. In “Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History,” he shows that he is an equally good writer.
The subtitle of the book is “Episodes From the Margins of Jewish History,” and Dunner shows that even though many of the events in the book are outliers, they still have a significant effect on the Jewish world even today. Dunner notes that oddities in the Jewish world tend to shed light on what is wrong with the system that produced them. While not a perfect formula, there is indeed a lot to learn from some of the stories in the book.
The book opens with perhaps the most notorious event of the last 400 years, the story of Shabbetai Tzvi. It’s quite easy for us today to superimpose our knowledge and look at the Shabbetai Tzvi debacle with incredulousness. It’s equally hard for us to imagine how the masses, and even one of the greatest sages of the generation, could fall victim to one of the greatest theological frauds of the last 2,000 years.
The success of Shabbetai Tzvi is attributed to myriad reasons, including people not understanding the nature of his severe dipolar disorder. That, combined with their intense longing for moshiach, coalesced with other factors to create a perfect storm for a false messiah.
Shabbetai Tzvi again rears his ugly head in the chapter where Dunner recounts the controversy where Rabbi Yakov Emden accused Rabbi Yonason Eybeschutz of being a Sabbatean. R’ Emden felt that the amulets R’ Eybeschutz wrote to help pregnant women contained codes that showed that Shabbetai Tzvi was the messiah and R’ Eybeschutz was a closet Sabbatean.
The Emden/Eybeschutz conflict was certainly one of the most painful, if not most bizarre, rabbinic disputes over the last few hundred years. Ironically, as nefarious as the charges were against R’ Eybeschutz, it is astonishing this epic battle had no residual effect on either on either of these great sages. While the Emden/Eybeschutz episode was well researched, Dunner surprisingly does not reference Rabbi Dr. Sid Leiman, who is one of the most renowned experts on the topic.
In another story, Dunner details the Get of Cleves from 1766. Part of the issue was that the dayanim of the city of Frankfurt refused to publish their legal arguments, or publish refutations of the reasons published by those who opposed them, in reference to a divorce case in the city of Cleves. Since their stance was so contentious, it seemed odd that they refused to back up their views with solid evidence and source-based material.
The Get of Cleves case was in some ways quite similar to the Langer case 200 years later, where chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren refused to publish the details of his ruling, in addition to not sharing the names of the rabbis who signed on to his ruling.
All of the stories in the book are engaging and fascinating. Other topics include the story of the Maharal Hagadah, which was an elaborate forgery; the story of Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln; and more.
The tale of Trebitsch-Lincoln is so bizarre, one almost strains to realize it’s not fiction. Dunner writes that he was born in Hungary to an Orthodox family and was known as Avraham Schwarz in 1879. By the time he dies in 1943, he was a con man, Protestant missionary, Anglican priest, member of the British Parliament for Darlington, German politician and spy, Nazi collaborator and, at his death, a Buddhist monk in China.
This is a most enjoyable book, and its only disappointment is its short page count. Anyone who has watched his videos knows that Rabbi Dunner is a most captivating speaker. In “Mavericks, Mystics & False Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History,” he shows that he is an equally good writer.
August 6, 2026
R. Dunner has written an interesting book about the eccentric aspects of Jewish history. This is a book for those familiar with the overall story of Jewish history in Europe and the halachic process of deciding Jewish law. As the last chapter of the book tells, the book was deliberately written almost as a novel, there are no sources or references provided, except in the overview he gives in the noted last chapter.
The majority of the book deals with the story of Shabbtai Zvi (1626-1676), the infamous false Messiah that convinced many people in Europe and beyond that the redemption was coming. The effects of this man reverberated around 100 years later with accusations by R. Yaacov Emden (1697-1776) that another known rabbi (R. Jonathan Eybeschutz 1690-1764) was a secret follower of Shabbtai Zvi, even after his death. In fact, he may have been, the historical record is not clear as the book points out. This story has resonates to today, especially with the emphasis of Chabad on bringing of the Messiah, and the belief of some that the late Rebbe is the Messiah and he in fact did not die but is merely in hiding.
The other chapter that resonates today is the story of the Get of Cleeves, about a divorce in 1766, and the split amongst the Jewish community about its validity. This story has fallout even until today how various rabbinical courts accept each other's decisions.
The entries in the book about fakes, forgers, and crazy people are interesting but are really footnotes to Jewish history; the two chapters discussed above are still discussed and more relevant.
Besides the discussion of lack of source material, so it is difficult to see where the information has come from, there are parts of the book that use quotation marks of discussions and sermons from hundreds of years ago, I find it difficult to believe that we know exactly what was said, so the dialogue is necessarily invented. As this is a work of non-fiction that should not happen, hence four stars not five.
I would not call this book entertaining, many aspects are really sad, but it is quite a story for the students of Jewish history.
The majority of the book deals with the story of Shabbtai Zvi (1626-1676), the infamous false Messiah that convinced many people in Europe and beyond that the redemption was coming. The effects of this man reverberated around 100 years later with accusations by R. Yaacov Emden (1697-1776) that another known rabbi (R. Jonathan Eybeschutz 1690-1764) was a secret follower of Shabbtai Zvi, even after his death. In fact, he may have been, the historical record is not clear as the book points out. This story has resonates to today, especially with the emphasis of Chabad on bringing of the Messiah, and the belief of some that the late Rebbe is the Messiah and he in fact did not die but is merely in hiding.
The other chapter that resonates today is the story of the Get of Cleeves, about a divorce in 1766, and the split amongst the Jewish community about its validity. This story has fallout even until today how various rabbinical courts accept each other's decisions.
The entries in the book about fakes, forgers, and crazy people are interesting but are really footnotes to Jewish history; the two chapters discussed above are still discussed and more relevant.
Besides the discussion of lack of source material, so it is difficult to see where the information has come from, there are parts of the book that use quotation marks of discussions and sermons from hundreds of years ago, I find it difficult to believe that we know exactly what was said, so the dialogue is necessarily invented. As this is a work of non-fiction that should not happen, hence four stars not five.
I would not call this book entertaining, many aspects are really sad, but it is quite a story for the students of Jewish history.
March 9, 2024
This is how to write history for non-academics! (Thanks to Rabbi Akiva Weisinger for the recommendation.)
Rabbi Dunner describes several strange people or events from the last few centuries of Jewish history. He's such a good storyteller that you want to keep reading to find out what happened. (How often does a history book deserve to be described that way?)
One of the chapters, about the Emden-Eybeschutz Controversy, is hands-down the best description of the subject that I've read. And I took a course in graduate school about it!
I also appreciate the 30-page Conclusion, in which Rabbi Dunner fills in more information about each subject. It's clear that he has done a thorough job of research, and yet he manages to make the material accessible to the non-academic reader. Normally, I'm a big fan of footnotes/endnotes and bibliographies; but here, Rabbi Dunner's choice to omit them contributes to the book's success. Excellent!
Rabbi Dunner describes several strange people or events from the last few centuries of Jewish history. He's such a good storyteller that you want to keep reading to find out what happened. (How often does a history book deserve to be described that way?)
One of the chapters, about the Emden-Eybeschutz Controversy, is hands-down the best description of the subject that I've read. And I took a course in graduate school about it!
I also appreciate the 30-page Conclusion, in which Rabbi Dunner fills in more information about each subject. It's clear that he has done a thorough job of research, and yet he manages to make the material accessible to the non-academic reader. Normally, I'm a big fan of footnotes/endnotes and bibliographies; but here, Rabbi Dunner's choice to omit them contributes to the book's success. Excellent!
May 1, 2019
The historical records are filled with tales of eccentrics, crackpots and misfits. Their stories rarely make it into grade-school history books, even though they could teach us something about the boundaries of societal behavior. Two recent works look at these historical oddities: “Mavericks, Mystics and Messiahs: Episodes from the Margins of Jewish History” by Puni Dunner (The Toby Press) explores the lives of several religious eccentrics, while “The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies” by Dawn Raffel (Blue Rider Press) tells the story of one unusual individual.
See the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...
See the rest of my review at http://www.thereportergroup.org/Artic...
November 2, 2020
Rabbi Pini Dunner has written an entertaining book for anyone interested interested in the footnotes of Jewish history. He makes these dry events into a page turner. The book relates the story of Shabtai Tzevi the false messiah of the 17th Century and this charlatan’s influence after his death. This story leads to the Eyebeshutz-Embden dispute then the controversy of the Get of Cleves . The most unbelievable character Treibutsh-Lincoln has his story related almost empathetically
Rabbi Dunner!’s skill is to transform dry stories into detective tales
Overall - check it out. Entertaining read from a master story teller
Rabbi Dunner!’s skill is to transform dry stories into detective tales
Overall - check it out. Entertaining read from a master story teller
May 24, 2019
Fascinating stories. Helps if the reader already knows a bit about Jewish history. I will say that the author has a few spelling quirks for Hebrew transliteration that don't match how we nornally see things in American English. One gets used to them after a while.
March 28, 2020
The author's style overpromises and underdelivers. He also commits a cardinal biographer's sin - presenting large swatches of conversation that he cannot possibly know is true (despite the fact that in his Conclusion, he mentions that some dialogue was recorded).
February 3, 2019
Anything By Pini Dunner is a welcome read. This book explores some subjects that others may not have touched and give some fantastic side notes to the history of Judaism.
March 15, 2026
5 stars for the content. 2 stars for the writing.
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