Ezra Attiya

Ezra Attiya was born in 1881 in Aleppo

Ezra Attiya was born in Aleppo, Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire, to Yitzchak and Leah. His parents vowed that if they had a son, he would be named Ezra and devote his life to Torah. His father was a teacher, and he had one brother, Eliyahu.

At 16 he moved with his family to Jerusalem's Old City. After his father died, the family was poor, but he kept studying Talmud and Jewish law. He studied at Ohel Moed Yeshiva and married Bolissa Salem, daughter of Avraham Salem.

During World War I he left for Egypt to avoid the Ottoman draft. In Cairo he ran the Ahavah VeAchvah yeshiva, taught working men and served as a rabbinical judge. He returned to Jerusalem in 1922.

When Porat Yosef opened in 1923 he became its spiritual supervisor, and in 1925 he became its head. He kept classes going after the 1929 riots and during the 1948 war, when the Old City building burned with his writings. He also sat on the Sephardic rabbinical court of Jerusalem.

His students included Ovadia Yosef, Ben Zion Abba Shaul and Mordechai Eliyahu. He died in Jerusalem on 25 May 1970 and was buried on Har HaMenuchot. Yehuda Tzadka succeeded him.