Ezra Attiya - Marriage and Flight

Marriage and Flight

In 1909, Attiya married Bolissa Sallam, daughter of Rabbi Avraham Sallam, a kabbalist. In 1911 their first son was born, but died in infancy.

At the beginning of World War I, there was a general mobilization for the Turkish army and all able-bodied men were snatched off the streets. Rabbi Attiya's brother Eliyahu died of pneumonia in the Turkish army. Two of the leading Sephardic sages of Jerusalem, Rabbi Chaim Shaul Dweck Hakohen and Rabbi Avraham Ades, smuggled Rabbi Attiya to Egypt using a forged Russian passport, which at that time did not require a photograph.

Rabbi Attiya settled in Cairo. At first he attempted to go into business, but quickly lost most of his money. Then he met Nissim Nachum, a wealthy refugee who knew him from Jerusalem. With Nachum's backing, Rabbi Attiya opened a yeshiva named Ahavah VeAchvah in the basement of the Cairo rabbinate. Under his direction, the yeshiva grew to 100 students, attracting many from secular backgrounds. Rabbi Attiya also gave classes to working men, and was a dayan on the Cairo beit din. After World War I ended his wife joined him. They and their two children returned to Jerusalem in 1922.