Creator Bio
Leon Sciaky
1893–1958
Born in Salonika when it was still an Ottoman territory, Leon Sciaky was deeply committed to his hometown. Of Sephardic descent, his family had established themselves there as merchants after the Spanish expulsion, and they continued to speak Ladino at home into the twentieth century. In 1915, in the midst of the turbulence brought about by World War I, Sciaky’s family left for the United States and settled in upstate New York, where he worked as a history teacher.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
Farewell to Salonica: City at the Crossroads
Our classroom was on the upper floor and in the rear of the building. Its two large windows opened on a garden which, because it could be reached only by crossing M. Shalom’s apartment, was forbidden…