A school taught in the principal synagogue contained about a thousand pupils, but with the least possible intellectual value in the instruction.

Half as many more were in private schools, where Hebrew and Hebrew-Spanish were taught, but nothing like Grammar, Geography, or History.

In a small select school, supported by rich Jews, Italian (the commercial language) and French were taught.
Familiarity with the Talmud was regarded as the perfection of knowledge, so that a man needed to know nothing else.

"Oh," said a beardless youth to a missionary, "if you had only read our Talmud, you would throw all your books into the fire." Salonica was famous for its books, but they were servile imitations of the Talmud.

The spoken language was essentially Spanish, but, with a deficient vocabulary, and greatly corrupted with Turkish and Hebrew words, while subject to constant change.