Born in Tangier in 1864, Menahem Attias studied at the Alliance Israélite Universelle school and with Pierre Senac, a teacher of French in the Catholic Mission. From 1898 to 1900 he served as chancellor of the consulate of Brazil in Tangier. For many years he was the secretary of the Casino de Tangier. During World War I, on instructions from Isaac Abensur, the president of the Junta, the ruling council of the Tangier Jewish community, he organized a lottery to raise funds with which to meet the community’s budgetary deficits. In 1918, he became a member of the Junta, serving on its school c…