Dönmeh West is a non-sectarian, international organization which promotes an original reformulation of Sabbatean and Frankist kabbalah by its founder and leader, Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain. Its website has over 100,000 international visitors to date, and is one of the most-viewed Kabbalah-related websites on the Internet.[1][2]
Donmeh West was founded in 1972 by the Kabbalist, religious philosopher and poet Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain, a descendant of Turkish Sabbateans. Both he and Donmeh West have been widely credited with initiating and leading a world-wide revival in Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah over the past 40 years.[3]
In light of this, the popular Israeli newspaper Maariv published an extensive interview with Reb Yakov Leib[4] (an expanded English version of which can be found on the Donmeh West website[5]) and has begun translating and publishing his writings as feature articles in the Culture and Religion section of their newspaper[6].
Donmeh West and its founding by Reb Yakov Leib HaKohain are noted and discussed by Prof. Matt Goldish in the introduction to his book, The Sabbatean Prophets, published by Harvard University Press[7], as well as by Prof. Wendelin von Winckelstein in his study, Die Odyssee des Aristoteles, where he writes “Eine nachfolgeorganisation existiert heute noch unter dem namen Donmeh West” (“Today a successor organization [to that of Sabbatai Zevi’s original Donmeh] still exists under the name of Donmeh West"). [8]