the Ba'al Shem Heilprin had many pupils "who formed a band of charlatans who shamelessly exploited the credulity of their contemporaries," that the Ba'al Shem Tob and Jacob Frank both had large followings, it is surely here that we may find the origin of those mysterious magicians who spread themselves over Europe at this date.
It will at once be asked: "But what proof is there that any one of these Ba'al Shems or Cabalists was connected with masonic or secret societies?" The answer is that the most important Ba'al Shem of the day, known as "the Chief of all the Jews," is shown by documentary evidence to have been an initiate of Freemasonry and in direct contact with the leaders of the secret societies. If then it is agreed that neither Saint-Germain nor Cagliostro can be proved to have been Jews, here we have a man concerned in the movement, more important than either, whose nationality admits of no doubt whatever.
This extraordinary personage, known as the "Ba'al Shem of London," was a Cabalistic Jew named Hayyim Samuel Jacob Falk, also called Dr. Falk, Falc, de Falk, or Falkon, born in 1708, probably in Podolia. The further fact that he was regarded by his fellow-Jews as an adherent of the Messiah Shabbethai Zebi clearly shows his connexion with the Podolian Zoharites. Falk was thus not an isolated phenomenon, but a member of one of the groups described in the foregoing pages. The following is a summary of the account given of the Ba'al Shem of London