Goodman, was born in Bohemia, went to England at the close of the 18th century. In 1806 he was a schoolmaster in Liverpool, where he is said to have preached the earliest synagogue sermons delivered in English. He was subsequently associated with the Westminster Synagogue in London, where he delivered various addresses, the earliest both delivered and published in English, on the death of the Princess Charlotte (1817) and of King George III (1820). Goodman published Jedaiah Penini's Behinat Olam with an English translation (1806). He was an active religious controversialist.