Savoring Heritage: Ladino and Family Recipes with Elaine Lindheim

In this episode, host Sarah Bunin Benor interviews Elaine Lindheim, a native Los Angeleno deeply involved in the Jewish community, about her Sephardic heritage and connection to Ladino. Lindheim shares how Ladino was the “secret language” of her parents and other relatives and explores the preservation of linguistic heritage primarily through family recipes and food-related terms like ojaldres, borekas, fritadas, and rosca.

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Elaine Lindheim, is a native Los Angeleno. Her involvement in the Jewish community has included as a past president of BJE, a board member at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel and chair of the Advisory Board of the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies. She earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a doctorate in research methods and evaluation from UCLA. Her grandparents, from Izmir, Turkey, were founding members of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel. Now retired she volunteers as a literacy instructor for adult English language learners and enjoys spending time with her family.