Menahem ben Judah was one of several Jewish Messiah claimants

Jewish Messiah claimants

The Messiah in Judaism has a number of interpretations, including any king chosen by God; a holy king who will lead Israel; and someone who will usher in an idyllic age of peace and justice...

 around the time of the Jewish War

First Jewish-Roman War

The First Jewish–Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Judaea Province , against the Roman Empire...

 and is mentioned by Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

.

Some identify him with Menahem the Essene

Menahem the Essene

Menahem the Essene was a Jewish Tanna sage living during the era of the Zugot. He was "Paired" with Hillel the Elder and served as Av Beit Din...

 including Israel Knohl (English edition, 2001) who makes this identification from two purportedly messianic hymns from Qumran.

He may be identical with the Menahem ben Hezekiah

Menahem ben Hezekiah

Menahem ben Hezekiah was a quasi-Messianic Jewish teacher born on the day the Second Temple was destroyed....

 mentioned in the Talmud (tractate Sanhedrin 98b) and called "the comforter that should relieve", and is to be distinguished from Menahem ben Ammiel

Menahem ben Ammiel

Menahem ben Ammiel, or ben Amiel, is a character in apocalyptic Jewish texts, the future Messiah of the Sefer Zerubbabel. He fights with Armilus, the Jewish apocalyptic counterpart of the Christian Book of Revelation's Antichrist....

, the Messiah of the Sefer Zerubbabel.