Young Leo

Leo’s happy childhood abruptly changed when the Russian nobleman Ivan fell in love with Leo’s Jewish mother. Indignant relatives, fearing that Leo would be taken to Russia and baptized, kidnapped him and moved him to distant Crimea. Desperately wanting to find his mother, Leo managed to escape from his kidnappers. He was able to join a gypsy camp and he wandered with the gypsies across the Crimea in search of his mother. In the city of Yalta, a noblewoman who wanted to keep him as her son abducted Leo, but the desire to find his mother was stronger than the comforts of a wealthy estate, and Leo escaped to the wilderness of the Crimean Mountains. There the Crimean Tatars saved him from starvation, and they helped him to make the journey to the city of Karasubazar to meet with Jewish traders who helped him in his search. Finally, Leo achieved his goal and found his mother, but that is not the end of the story.…