Benjamin was born in Denver, United States to a family with roots in the Ladino-speaking cities of Israel and the Mediterranean. At the moment, Benjamin is an undergraduate student in linguistics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. While not raised with Ladino, he began self-instruction in middle school. This project aims to preserve the Ladino language and Sephardic culture through the collection, translation, and video-recording of recipes. Ultimately it is Benjamin's goal to publish course material in Ladino and to establish opportunities for young people to continue the legacy of Ladino.
Benjamin's project will create a YouTube channel featuring at least 25 cooking videos in Ladino, alongside a website that will host recipes and their histories in Ladino, English, and Hebrew. This initiative addresses two key gaps: the lack of casual, engaging Ladino content and the underrepresentation of Sephardic cuisine in popular culture—despite food being a central aspect of Sephardic heritage. By combining food, language, and storytelling, the project will build a corpus of spoken and written Ladino, making both the language and Sephardic culinary traditions more accessible. Through entertaining videos and detailed recipes, the project aims to spark interest in Ladino and preserve Sephardic heritage for future generations.