Ahavath David: Olath Chodesh [polemic against Sabbatian and Frankist beliefs].

A rare text in which the author heavily inveighs against a group in Prague, led by Yonah Beer Wehle, who were outspoken in favor of their Sabbatian-Frankist beliefs. The Wehle Family were the unquestioned secular leaders of Prague Jewry. After the death of Chief Rabbi Yeḥezkel Landau (1793), the Prague Sabbatians’ public profile became much more conspicuous. R. Landau’s successor, R. Elazar Fleckeles (1754-1826) delivered on the first day of Selichos 1799, this famous anti-Sabbatian sermon, which surprisingly was printed with the permission of the Austrian censors. As the members of the Sabbatian group belonged to the richest and best-connected citizens of Prague, they generated much resentment within the community. Shortly after the sermon was delivered, riots erupted in the city, and, despite the fact that R. Fleckeles did not directly mention any names, the mob apparently knew very well whom to direct their anger. Indeed Yonah Beer Wehle had visited the Frankist court in Offenbach and was the main financial supporter of Ewa Frank. During their stay in Offenbach, his sons Akiva and Avraham were baptized and assumed the names of Joseph and Max Klarenberg. Yonah’s daughter Deborah married Löw Enoch Edler von Hönigsberg, another Sabbatian leader. See Majer Bałaban, Zur Geschichte der Familie Wehle in Prag,in: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Juden in der Tschechoslowakei 3 (1933) pp. 113–115. And Pawel Maciejko, www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Wehle_Family.