LANGUAGE
LADINO
In the early 1900s, the Jews of Greece primarily spoke Judeo-Spanish, a Romance language derived from 15th century Spanish, peppered with Turkish and Arabic words from their time in the Ottoman Empire. This language, has an incredible literary history, in both poetry and song. While not a Jewish language, has been spoke by the Jews who were forced out of Spain for the past 500 years. Now on the endangered language watch list, Judeo-Spanish has had a recent revival, with the International Ladino Day celebrating its fifth year in 2018.
FRENCH
The Alliance Israelite Universelle has a long history of in the Ottoman Empire, opening Jewish schools that taught French as a second language. They had about ten schools in Greece until World War II. Many Sephardic Jews had some knowledge of French.