In 1938, Enzo Bonaventura, because of his Jewish faith, lost his position as Chair of Psychology at the University of Florence under the new race laws.
During the War of Independence, he fought with the Moria battalion of the Palmach, the strike force of the Haganah founded in 1941.
Enzo Bonaventura was a victim of the notorious attack on Hadassah, while he was going to work in the medical convoy escorted by the Haganah militia as it was on its way to the hospital on Mount Scopus.
Between 1952 and 1961 he obtained various qualifications including a PhD, while working as a librarian at the National and University Library.
[1] His doctoral thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Alexander Fuks, was described as "a small masterpiece" and "rapidly recognised by the academic community as a starting point for all subsequent studies of landed property in ancient Greece.