Julius Schacknow

Julius Schacknow was born into a poor recently immigrated Russian Orthodox-Jewish family who lived in Brooklyn, New York in 1929. He served in the Navy and was severely wounded during World War II. As a result of his head wounds and trauma, during the mid-1970's with the prodding of his 3rd wife Joanne proclaimed himself to be the Christ and called himself Brother Julius.

In 1976 he stopped making public appearances and developed multi-million dollar real estate and construction businesses, which reportedly did $100 million in sales in the mid-1980s. The business collapsed with the real estate market at the end of the 1980s, and many of his followers left to find employment elsewhere.