Sabbatai Zevi, was a Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Jewish Sabbatean movement, and inspired the founding of a number of other similar sects, such as the Donmeh in Turkey. Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna on (supposedly) a Sabbath 9th Av 1626, and died, according to some, on Yom Kippur, September 30 1676, in Dulcigno, a small town in the coastal region of Montenegro.

Jacob Frank was an 18th century Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi, and also of King David. Frank and his followers were excommunicated on account of his extremely unconventional doctrines that included acceptance of the New Testament, Enlightenment and some controversial concepts such as purification through transgression.

This article presents an overview of various historically significant Jewish Messiah claimants. For general information see Jewish Messiah and also see the various main articles referenced below.

Rabbi Gil O. Student (born August 8, 1972) is an ordained but non-pulpit serving American Orthodox rabbi. He has written about the interface between Judaism, more specifically Orthodox Judaism, and modern controversial topics. He has also written in opposition to the claim by some Chabad Lubavitch Hasidim that the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, may have been the long-awaited Jewish Messiah (i.e. the "Moshiach").

Rav Nachman (d. 320) (Hebrew: רב נחמן בר יעקב) was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the third generation, and pupil of Mar Samuel. He was chief justice of the Jews who were subject to the exilarch (the political head of the Babylonian Jewish community), and was also head of the school of Nehardea. On the destruction of that town, he transferred his pupils to Shekanẓib.

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo, also Sholom Ber Wolpe, (born 1948) is a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and community leader in Israel. He has written more than forty books in Hebrew, some of which deal with the position of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Lubavitcher Rebbe, as the Jewish messiah. He set up the Chabad Yeshiva in Kiryat Gat where he is currently the dean or "Rosh Yeshiva". He has become associated in recent years with right-wing political causes, …

Asher Lämmlein was a German who appeared in Istria, near Venice, in 1502 and, encouraged by the works of Isaac Abrabanel, proclaimed himself a forerunner of the Jewish Messiah. He declared that if his fellow Jews would show great repentance and charity, the Messiah would not fail to to appear in six months. He gained a troop of adherents who spread his prophesies though Italy and Germany, …

Shukr ben Salim Kuhayl I or Mari (Master) Shukr Kuhayl I was a Yemenite messianic pretender of the 19th century. He initially revealed himself in San‘a’ in 1861 as a messenger of the Messiah at a time when messianic expectations in Yemen were ripe as a result of political turmoil. Divorcing his wife, he took up the life of an itinerant preacher to live in poverty and exhort the community to repentance.

Moses Dobruška was a nephew of Jacob Frank, the founder of the Frankist sect who claimed to be the Jewish messiah. Dobruška was an alchemist, freemason, writer, and poet. In 1773 he converted from Judaism to the Catholic faith and took the name of Franz Thomas Schönfeld. In 1778 he was elevated to nobility in Vienna, becoming "Franz Thomas Edler von Schönfeld". Together with Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld, who did not convert, …

Joseph ben Solomon Ṭaiṭazaḳ, also referred to by the acronym "MahaRITaTS", was a talmudic authority and kabalist who lived at Salonica in the 15th and 16th centuries. With his father and his brother he went in 1492 from Spain, his native land, to Salonica, where he became rabbi. He was considered one of the greatest Talmudists of his time, even Joseph Caro invoking his authority ("Abḳat Rokel," § 56).

Shemariah ben Elijah Ikriti of Negropont (Hebrew: שמריה בן אליהו האיקריטי) was an Jewish-Italian philosopher and Biblical exegete, contemporary of Dante and Immanuel. He was born probably at Rome, the descendant of a long line of Roman Jews. His father, in his youth, went as rabbi to Crete, whence his surname, "Ha-Yewani" (="the Greek"), or "Ha-Iḳriṭti" (= "the Cretan"). Shemariah had a critical mind, and knew Italian, Latin, …