Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ezekiel, Solomon

1151948Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 — Ezekiel, Solomon1889Thompson Cooper

EZEKIEL, SOLOMON (1781–1867), Jewish writer, son of Abraham Ezekiel Ezekiel [q. v.], was born at Newton Abbot, Devonshire, on 7 June 1781, and settled at Penzance as a plumber. In January 1820 he published a letter to Sir Rose Price, bart., chairman of a branch of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, who had asked for a conference with the large and wealthy Hebrew community at Penzance. In consequence of Ezekiel's letter Sir Rose Price made further reaearches, and came to the conclusion that the Jews were not yet prepared to adopt the christian faith, Ezekiel, who was a rigid observer of the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion, died at Penzance on 9 March 1867.

He wrote:

  1. A translation from the Hebrew of a pamphlet by the Rev. Hart Symons, containing censures of the authorised version of the holy scriptures. A reply to this, by John Rogers, canon of Exeter, was published in 1822.
  2. 'The Life of Abraham' and 'The Life of Isaac,' Penzance, 1844-5, 12mo, being a series of lectures on the lives of the patriarchs, delivered before the Penzance Hebrew Society for Promoting the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge.
  3. 'Lecture on the Hebrew Festivals,' Penzance, 1847, 12mo, delivered at the Penzance Literary Institute.

[Jewish Chronicle, 22 March 1867, p. 6; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornubiensis, pp. 145. 1178; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Jacobs and Wolf's Bibl. Anglo-Judaica, No. 971.]

T. C.