At the age of nine Raphall was taken by his father, who was banker to the
King of Sweden, to
Copenhagen, where he was educated at the Hebrew grammar school. "He was educated for the Jewish ministry in the college of his faith in Copenhagen, in England, where he went in 1812, and afterward in the
University of Giessen, where he studied in 1821-24." Raphall married Rachel Goldston on August 3, 1825 and they had five children (Alfred, James, Esther, Charles, and Isabella). Rachel was one of seven children of Manasseh Goldston (also known as Goldstein and Goulston). In February 1827 Raphall was named as a defendant in an insurance fraud case involving a fire at a fur shop owned by his brother in law Noah Goldston. Raphall was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months prison. He devoted himself to the study of languages, for the better acquisition of which he subsequently traveled in
France,
Germany, and
Belgium. He received the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Erlangen (Germany). After lecturing on Hebrew poetry in 1834 he began to publish the
Hebrew Review, and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature, the first Jewish periodical in England; and was appointed rabbi and preacher of Manhattan's
B'nai Jeshurun congregation, at the time called the Greene Street Synagogue. He continued there until 1866, his duties then being relaxed owing to his poor health. He died in New York on June 23, 1868. ==Views on slavery==