BENAMOZEGH, ELIA. - Jewish writer, b. at Livorno in 1823 and d. there in 1900. Rabbi, preacher, and lecturer at the rabbinical college of Livorno, he published in Hebrew 'Emath mafgla' against Leone Modena’s opposition to the Kabbalah (1858), explanatory notes on the Targum of Onqelos (1858), a commentary on the Psalms (Nir lê-Dâwâdh, 1858), a commentary on the Pentateuch ('Em lam-miqrâ', 1862-65), a polemical work against the anti-Kabbalism of S. D. Luzzatto (Ta'am
laš-šadh, 1863), and a work on the prohibition of cremating corpses (1866). Also: Storia degli Esseni (Florence, 1865); Morale juive et morale chrétienne (Paris, 1867; ed. Pallière, Florence, 1925); Teologia apologetica e dogmatica, I, Dio (Livorno, 1877); Israël et l'humanité (Introduction, 1885; complete ed. Pallière, Paris, 1914). Under his influence Aimé Pallière converted to Judaism and, after B.’s death, published in French his two most characteristic works.