BENNETT, SALOMON YOM TOV

BENNETT, SALOMON YOM TOV (1761–1838), English engraver and writer. Bennett was born in Polotsk, Belorussia. In 1792 he went to study in Copenhagen. Three years later he moved to Berlin, where he was admitted to the Royal Academy and engraved portraits of Frederick the Great, the king and queen of Prussia, and others. In 1799 he settled in London. However, as his standard of religious observance was open to criticism he found himself cold-shouldered in official circles. He began to attack the chief rabbi, Solomon *Hirschel, in books and pamphlets. Bennett produced a series of polemical, theological, and exegetical works, including: The Constancy of Israel (1809); Discourse on Sacrifice (1815); The Temple of Ezekiel (1824); The Molten Sea (1824); Critical Remarks on the Authorized Versions of the Old Testament (1824); and A Theological and Critical Treatise on the Primogeniture and Integrity of the Holy Language (1835). He began to prepare a new English translation of the Bible of which only the first two parts, comprising Genesis chs. 1–41, appeared (1841). As a frontispiece to the Temple of Ezekiel Bennett included an engraved portrait of himself painted by another artist. The work is illustrated by a fine and erudite reconstruction of the general view and ground plan of the Temple.

bibliography:

Barnett, in: jhset, 17 (1951–52), 91–111; S. Kirschstein, Juedische Graphiker aus der Zeit von 1625–1825 (1918), 15–27; Roth, Mag Bibl, index; A. Barnett, The Western Synagogue Through Two Centuries (1961), 51–54; Roth, Art, 532–3. add. bibliography: Katz, England, 328–29.