(1766-1848)
English author. He was the son of an Italian-born merchant. His first essays were among the earliest Jewish contribu-tions to English literature. His writings include Curiosities of Literature and Commentary on the Life and Reign of Charles I. In 1813 he was fined by the Sephardi synagogue in London for refusing to serve as warden. He resigned from the congregation and had his children baptized. Benjamin Disraeli, later prime minister and Earl of Beaconsfield, was his son.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography. Dan Cohn-Sherbok.