Pawel Maciejko’s first book, The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement 1755-1816 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) traces the development of Frankism, a Jewish religious movement that erupted in Poland and spread into the Habsburg Empire and the German lands in the second half of the 18th century. This syncretic movement actively defined itself in juxtaposition to other religious strands: rabbinic Judaism, Islam, and various denominations of Christianity. Whereas previous Jewish heretical sects had had very little bearing on the surrounding societies, Frankism had a significant political and ideological influence on non-Jewish communities. Heterodox groups offered an alternative to those Jews who felt constricted by the rigid authority of the rabbinate. At the same time, a sector of the enlightened European society began to display an active interest in esoteric Jewish lore. Frankism became a real cause célèbre of its time: it provoked the interests of Joseph II and Catherine the Great, Goethe and Casanova, among others. Based on extensive archival research in Poland, Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic, the US, and the Vatican, The Mixed Multitude is the first comprehensive study of Frankism in more than a century. It was awarded the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in Humanistic Disciplines and is available from the publisher, on Amazon.com, and from good booksellers everywhere.