Benedetto Frizzi (Benzion Raphael HaKohen). Difesa contro gli attacchi fatti alia Nazione Ebrea nel Libro Intitolato “Della Influenza Del Ghetto Nello Stato” [response to the slanderous attack by Giovan Battista D’Arco against the Jews of Italy]

Born in Ostiano near Mantua, Benedetto Frizzi (1756–1844) studied medicine at the University of Pavia. A man of great learning and wide renown, Frizzi grew to be considered one of the most outstanding Jewish scholars of the Western European Enlightenment and a champion of Italian Jewry against political attack by the commentariat. In this anonymously penned tract Frizzi sought to disprove accusations that Jews shunned Christians and that their economic activities tended to impoverish the countries they lived in. He describes Jewish theology, philosophy, and ethics and then analyzes in great detail and with many examples, the economic role of the Jews in Europe, particularly Italy. Frizzi discusses the valuable functions the Jews historically fulfilled and by what nature their success as merchants may be attributed to. See S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977) pp. 711-2.