Yehuda Porat was born in Egypt in a French speaking family. He finished primary school at the French oriented Jewish school of Cairo, where he also acquired essential knowledge in Arabic, English and Hebrew. His love for languages stems most probably from those days.

In Israel he graduated from high school with a major in humanistic studies, and also obtained a teacher's diploma from the Teacher's Seminar in Haifa.

He spent his army carrier in the Israeli Air force, first as a fighter navigator and then as a staff officer in the headquarters. Among the positions he held were Head of the Intelligence Analysis Department and later Head of the Air Force Budgets Department. During his service he studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he obtained a BA degree in economics and in English, and later at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. where he received his MA in political science. He retired as a Colonel.

Following his retirement he established and directed an economic consultancy firm which specialized in small business consultancy. After twenty years in business he decided to dedicate his time to his love for languages and studied translation and translation studies at Bar Ilan University. Alongside a second MA degree he obtained two diplomas in translation from French and from English into Hebrew. He also attended a translation course from Arabic into Hebrew.

In the last five years Yehuda has been engaged in the translation of books and academic papers, among which are:

1. The End of the Holocaust, by Alvin Rosenfeld, translated from English (published by Magness Press and Yad Vashem, 2013)

2. The Biblical Soul by Elie Wiesel, translated from French and English (Published by Miscal, Yediot Sfrarim, 2013)

3. The Talmudic Soul also by Elie Wiesel , translated from French (also published by Miscal, 2014)

4. From Empathy to Denial, by Meir Litwak and Esther Webman, translated from English (soon to be published by Magness Press)

5. The Lords of Finance, by Liaquat Ahamed, translated from English (soon to be published by Am Oved)

As can be seen from the above, Yehuda's preferred translation material is academic research although he has also translated one novel.