Alumni Spotlight - Sephardic Scholars Program

A special place sits in my heart for my Sephardic roots. And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way. My father, grandfather, great-grandfather — and the ancestors we trace back all the way to pre-Inquisition Spain — must feel it too. When I received four years’ worth of Brotherhood academic scholarships, I like to think that my ancestors had a lot of joy, muncha alegría.

When I think back on those scholarships, I don’t only think about the financial help. I think about the moments around it. At the Scholarship Awards Ceremony, I remember sitting amongst peers, eating borekas, listening to Sephardic music, and hearing Ladino floating through the room. Little do my ancestors know that Sephardic spirit lives on in me not just as a proud Jew, but as a fourth-generation Brotherhood  member.

My Jewish upbringing with synagogue, USY, and Jewish day school was complemented by the oral history passed down by Bensignors for generations. I grew up hearing stories of forced exile from Spain, life in Turkey, and later making the transatlantic leap to Cuba, the US, and Argentina. Today, you can find Bensignors all over the world. We don’t always know exactly how we’re all related, but we share pride in a common story that’s been carried forward for generations.

A lot of my appreciation for that heritage shows up in the everyday details. It’s in the food—borekas, kashkaval cheese, or lamb mina. It’s in a Passover seder that’s in Hebrew, English, and Ladino. It’s in the voices of Rabbi Marans z”l and Rabbi Golden at the Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst, NY, and in Shabbat morning melodies like the Bendicho and Ein Keloheinu, sung in Hebrew and Ladino. And it’s in the Brotherhood too: showing up to events like the International Sephardic Community Gala and feeling that continuity across generations. Through and through, I’m a Sephardic Jew.

Starting in my junior year of high school at the Schechter School of Long Island through my sophomore year at The Ohio State University, I received the scholarships. Those funds helped in very practical ways: easing tuition pressure, covering textbooks and supplies, and reducing the financial stress that can pile up when you’re trying to stay focused on school.

At Ohio State, I completed an accelerated BS/MS path, overlapping my senior year of the bachelor’s with graduate coursework so I could finish the master’s more efficiently. I was fortunate to graduate magna cum laude, with honors in aerospace engineering and a research honors distinction. During my master’s, I also received a NASA fellowship, which I’m grateful for and which helped me keep pushing toward engineering work that matters.

Alongside school, Jewish life stayed important to me in the ways that felt natural. I was active with OSU Hillel (and served on the student board) and OSU Chabad, and my social circle was strengthened by my Jewish brothers in ZBT. Having the support of the Sephardic Brotherhood in the background didn’t change who I was, it simply made it easier to stay steady and keep moving forward.

I now live in Delft, Netherlands, where I am pursuing my PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. Shortly after moving here, and meeting many young Jews from all over the world, I felt it was a shame for us not to have a formal community. So I helped launch the Jewish Student Association in Delft, and I currently serve as the Founding President.

Mostly, that looks like regular Shabbat dinners and building a place where people can show up, be Jewish, and feel safe expressing that Jewish identity, especially when that isn’t always comfortable to do publicly. It also includes on-campus outreach and education programs, interfaith programs, and advocacy work. And sometimes it means meeting with university leadership to represent the Jewish student community, to educate about antisemitism, and to talk through how to make campus more inclusive for Jewish students.

Career-wise, I’m still doing what I’ve been working toward for a long time: trying to become a great engineer. Maybe one day that puts me at NASA, or somewhere like it. And if everything lines up in the long run, I hope to pursue the NASA Astronaut path too. Perhaps I’ll be the 20th Jew to go to outer space, and maybe the first Sephardic Jew with roots tracing back to Spain. My next big challenge could be convincing NASA to let me bring some agristada and peshkado for the first ever Zero-G Sephardic Passover Seder in Ladino.

And I’ll add one more thing, especially for other award winners: please get involved. On campus, in the community, and in the Brotherhood. If you received support in the past, stay connected. Show up when you can. Volunteer when you can. Bring someone with you. Keep the community strong—not just for ourselves, but for the next people who come after us.

If you are interested in learning more about the Sephardic Scholarship Program, including opportunities to endow a named scholarship in honor or in memory of a loved one, please reach out to Ethan Marcus at ethan@sephardicbrotherhood.com or call 718-685-0080.