Ezra was born on June1928 in Jaffa and grew up in Jerusalem. Both his father Yitzhak (a native of the land) and his mother Emily raised their children in a home inspired by love of the nation and of the land. Emily told of Arab atrocities against the Jews and the antisemitic attitude so widespread across the globe. Yitzhak would tell about ancient Israelite heroes and those of the Nili movement, Trumpeldor and Jabotinsky. Ezra studied in the Ratisbonne Elementary School, and at age fourteen went to work as a telegram courier for the post office in Jerusalem.

In mid 1944, when he was sixteen, he joined Lehi. He joined the Intelligence Department (Department 6) and used his job to copy telegrams for British officers, as well as following and observing senior police officers and officials. He was active in a youth cell, going out with them to post posters. One time he and his friend were miraculously saved when gunfire suddenly burst at them from a police ambush. One of his friends was Alexander (Hayim) Rubowitz, Hy”d, with whom he developed a deep companionship and camaraderie, until one bitter day when he was abducted and tortured to death by Roy Farran and his group. Alexander revealed nothing and died without having seen his seventeenth birthday.

Ezra joined the combat division and was involved in many operations against the British. When the War of Independence began, he took part in almost all of the Lehi operations against the Arabs.

On many occasions, he miraculously avoided death or capture. On a mission to disarm British police on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem, he was wounded in his thigh. On a mission to break into the Old City, he was grievously wounded in his head, causing blindness in his right eye.

After his friend Moshe “Benzion” Barzani’s heroic death, alongside Meir Feinstein (whom he also had known since his childhood), as well as the death by torture of his good friend Hayim and the discovery by the British of a list of codenames, he decided to change his own nom de guerre to Elnakam. He even published a book by the same name, which was published in seven editions in Hebrew and two in English. He published more books, including: Scars, The Great Secret of Eli Facia, It Shall Be Built (the story of his fellow Lehi fighter Tzvi Shohami) and Eretz HaBrit. For close to thirty years he ran an art gallery.

Ezra wrote and lectured extensively, visiting many educational institutions to tell the story of Lehi.

He married Haya Zinn, and they had four children, Yitzhak, Ariel, Michael and Dorit, as well as five grandchildren. After Haya passed away in 1991, he married Hannah Weinberg.