Ezra was born in Beirut, Lebanon to a Syrian Jewish family[6]. The roots of the Nahmad family are in Aleppo, where his father, Sephardic Jewish banker Hillel Nahmad lived until just after World War II .[2] Following the Syrian anti-Jewish violence in 1949, his father moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where Ezra and his brothers sold English novels to US sailors stationed in Lebanon.