He took an active part in the Society for the Diffusion of Jewish Literature under whose aegis he published his works on Ibn Ezra and Maimonides. The first was an edition of Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on Isaiah with an English translation together with the English translation of Isaiah, revised in accordance with Ibn Ezra's commentary, as well as a volume of essays on the latter's writings (4 vols., 1873–77; vols. 1 and 3 repr. 1964). His translation into English (with annotations) of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed (3 vols., 1881–85; repr. 1953) was an edition which owed much to S. Munk's Arabic text and translation (1856–66). A revised one-volume edition of the English translation (without the notes, 1904 and many reprints) was long the standard English version of the Guide. He took an active part in the communal and cultural life of Anglo-Jewry. His knowledge of mathematics and astronomy made him an expert on the Jewish calendar. Moses Gaster was his son-in-law.