By Nikos Mottas
Abraham (Avraam) Benaroya was born to a Shephardic Jew family in 1886 in Bidin, in the then Principality of Bulgaria, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. He began studying at the Faculty of Law in the University of Belgrade, but didn't graduate; instead, he became a teacher in Plovdiv. Being a polyglot, Abraham was fluent in at least six languages, including Ladino, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, English and Turkish.
