Elia Meghnagi was raised in Benghazi, Libya, where he attended an Italian Catholic school run by friars. At the age of 17 he left his home and family to take up a scholarship for a pre-university year in Cambridge, UK. Having been warned not to return to Libya, he then spent two years at Gateshead Yeshiva before moving to London to obtain a degree in Telecommunications and Electronics. During these years he managed to bring his parents, two brothers and a sister to join him.

His work in telecoms took him to many parts of the world before he joined his brothers in 1988 to become a director of Snowcrest, a kosher manufacturing company.

He has devoted much of his time to Jewish education, and is also a director of the Simon Weisenthal Centre, UK. Now semi-retired, he and his wife enjoy spending time with their five children and a generous number of grand-children (most of whom live in Israel). He also  writes and gives talks about outstanding Jewish personalities, Jewish practice, and the Libyan Jewish community.