Haym Salomon was born in Leszno (Lissa), Poland, in 1740 to a family descended from Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had immigrated to Poland following the Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion. However, the Jewish villages in Poland were also vulnerable and were attacked on occasion by vicious pogroms. When Haym was a young man, one such pogrom threatened Lissa, and he fled to Holland.
As he traveled through Western Europe toward safer havens, Haym acquired knowledge of finance and fluency in several languages, including German. He returned to Poland in 1770, but in the wake of the Polish Partition in 1772, it seems he became involved in Poland's Nationalist movement and was forced to flee the country again. Salomon traveled to England and from there sailed to New York, which already was a thriving port and the center of commercial and shipping interests in North America
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