Josh Gad
Gad in 2013, photo by PrPhotos
Birth Name: Joshua Ilan Gad
Place of Birth: Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
Date of Birth: February 23, 1981
Ethnicity: Afghan Jewish, Ashkenazi Jewish
Josh Gad is an American actor, singer, and comedian. His roles include The Book of Mormon, Frozen, Pixels, Beauty and the Beast and Murder on the Orient Express (both 2017), 1600 Penn, and The Comedians.
Josh’s father was born in Afghanistan, and is of Afghan Jewish descent; he likely also had Indian Jewish ancestry. Josh’s father moved from Afghanistan to Israel at the age of thirteen. Josh’s mother, who was born in Germany, is from a Polish Jewish family, and his maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Josh had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
Of his father, Josh has said:
He came from a very religious family that was on a nomadic journey searching for a home… They went through India before finally settling in Afghanistan.
Josh is married to actress and writer Ida Darvish, with whom he has two children.
Josh’s maternal grandfather was named Joseph Greenblatt (the son of Gimpel Grunblatt, and of a mother surnamed Morowitz). Joseph was born in Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, and survived the Buchenwald concentration camp. Josh’s great-grandmother was the daughter of Josek Mejer Morowitz and Chaja Sura/Sarah Rzeznik.
Josh’s maternal grandmother was named Evelyn Rosenberg. Evelyn was born in Będzin, Będzin County, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.
A picture of Josh’s maternal grandparents can be seen here.
Sources: Family history of Josh Gad – https://jewishjournal.com
Genealogy of Josh Gad (focusing on his mother’s side) – https://www.geni.com
UPDATE: Josh Gad’s father is also of Bukharan Jewish descent along with Afghan Jewish, and likely some Italian Jewish, Albanian Jewish, or Turkish Jewish in the far back. Additionally, Josh Gad’s father grew up in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire. So there should be a ‘Turkish’ and ‘Turkish Jewish’ tag as well.
Correction:
37.5% Afghan-Mizrahi Jewish [including Bukharan Jewish and Indian Jewish]
12.5% likely Turkish or Turkish-Jewish
50% Ashkenazi Jewish
Tag ‘Bukharan Jewish’ and ‘Eurasian’ please (Why the Eurasian? Generally Afghans and Uzbeks including some Jews of those particular places belong to the Eurasian race although the majority percentage is white/Euro-Caucasian).
I don’t know about the percentages, since they may be inaccurate for most of you. Since the majority of Afghan Jews were of Bukharan Jewish descent (which are considered Mizrahim), please change ‘Afghan Jewish’ to the ‘Afghan-Bukharan Jewish’. If you find any sources that completely counter it, don’t put the percentage. His ethnicity should be listed like this:
{original:} Afghan Jewish, Ashkenazi Jewish
{modified:}
* father – Afghan-Bukharan Jewish, likely Indian Jewish
* mother- Ashkenazi Jewish
Additionally, Josh Gad’s Indian Jewish ancestor(s) (I don’t exactly remember or found out the name yet) through his father’s line was likely born in the UK around the era of British India. So that makes him (part) British Jewish as well.
About the Turkish Jewish ancestry:
Josh Gad’s father’s line first went back to the tribe of Gad. Then it went out the east of the present-day Israeli land and migrated to what is now Iraq and Turkey (probably including the Kurdistan region). Then the paternal ancestors of him moved through Iran and India before finally reaching to Afghanistan.