•  What does "Donmeh" mean?
"Donmeh" is the Turkish word for "apostate" and refers to the Jews of the Near East who followed Sabbatai Zevi into Islam in 1666, but secretly remained Jews who continued practicing Jewish rituals but worshipped Sabbatai Zevi as the Messiah and an incarnation of God.

•  Does the Donmehs still exist? And, if so, where?
As of 1970 there were an estimated 15,000 members of the Donmeh in the Near East -- mostly the cities of Adrianople, Istanbul, Salonika and Smyrna -- but none were known to exist in the Western Hemisphere.

•  What characterizes the Donmehs?
Although outwardly Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Christians, the Donmeh secretly continues to observe Jewish rituals (such as circumcision, but at the age of three rather than eight days), pray in Hebrew as well as Aramaic and Ladino (a Sephardic dialect of Yiddish, Hebrew and Spanish), and have clandestine festivals and fast days that are Jewish survivals. They also practice unique Sabbatian rites, probably instituted by Reb. Berechia after Sabbatai's death, such as "The Darkening of the Light."

•  What are the branches of the Donmehs?
There were, and still may be, four main branches of the Donmehs:
1) The Jakubi, formed by an early successor to Sabbatai Zevi who also claimed to be the Messiah;
2) The Karakash sect, by far the most radical, formed by the charismatic Reb. Berechia or "Othman Baba", who was the teacher of my namesake, Yakov Leib Frank;
3) The Kapanci, Frankists of the other sect of Karakash.
4) The Lechli, who are Donmehs of Polish extraction, according to sources from Salonika and Istanbul.