(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A new Jewish sect which declares Jesus of Nazareth to be the last and greatest of the Jewish prophets and recognizes the New Testament as a collection of the history and teachings of that prophet, has been formed in Northeastern Poland. Its membership is said to number between 15,000 and 20,000, according to a despatch from Dr. Frederic Funder, Vienna correspondent of the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service.
The creed of this new sect contains the contention that the death of Jesus was not caused by the Jews, but by the judges of the Romans, who feared that the spreading of belief in a new King of the Jews might cause riots to break out in the subjugated country.
The new sect wishes to recognize in Jesus of Nazareth a heaven-gifted man, but not the Messiah himself. The Messiah, they hold, could be expected only if the Jewish people obeyed the commands of that last great prophet, the correspondent says.
The correspondent further attempts to ascribe the origin of the sect to the Kabbalistic elements in the Chassidic movement.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
