David Copperfield
Copperfield in 2014, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: David Seth Kotkin
Place of Birth: Metuchen, New Jersey, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 16, 1956
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish, Yemenite Jewish
David Copperfield is an American illusionist, magician, and actor. He co-starred in the film Terror Train. His father, Hyman Kotkin, who was American-born, was of Ukrainian Jewish and Russian Jewish descent. His mother, who was born in Israel and was also Jewish, was of at least part Yemenite Jewish ancestry.
David has a daughter with his partner, French model Chloe Gosselin.
David’s paternal grandfather was named Sam Kotkin. Sam was born in Ukraine.
David’s paternal grandmother was named Bessie/Esther. Bessie was born in Russia.
David’s maternal grandfather was named Judah Josef Gispan. Judah was born in Sana’a, Yemen.
David’s maternal grandmother was named Esther Cohen. Esther was born in Jerusalem, Israel.
Sources: Genealogy of David Copperfield – https://www.geni.com
Obituaries of David’s parents – https://www.findagrave.com
passingtime
“You’ve won.
I see a bunny shape in the cloud, and you’ve proven to yourself why I’m inextricably incorrect and that it’s a different shape. You win, you win, you win. My perception is worse than your perception, for 50 reasons. Perception isn’t needed, facts on a piece of paper outweighs my lying eyes/mind.”
This is rich coming from someone who got invested in a lengthy debate with a nationalist. The tone of your text conveys raw and genuine exasperation. No matter how long ago this took place, doesn’t really matter. You’ve left quite the digital footprint here. You’re the same guy who said:
“Getting into racial discussions/debates are almost never a good idea, it always results in people getting upset/offensive/defensive, angry, aggressive, etc. I’d just drop it. This really isn’t a forum to argue, it’s just a fun website to look up ethnic backgrounds.”
I stand by both comments. There’s sometimes no way to change some people’s minds. Additionally, try as we all might, it’s difficult to curtail our desire to prove our assertions and points of views, but we should learn to walk away, when there’s clearly no way to sway other’s people’s opinions, including myself. But for posterity’s sake, sometimes these discourses can be beneficial for equal presentations of povs. Sometimes opinions are so askew, letting them stand without push back, is a detriment to all that are exposed to them.
If someone said “X group is….” and they have half truths backing up their assertions, people are going to walk away with a less than totally informed opinion. Offering push back, with additional facts and considerations, hopefully gives readers a more balanced presentation of facts. But this is mostly inconsequential, practically no one reads this nonsense en masse. There’s a few dedicated people that frequent this site, and even they know I’m a windbag and they mostly ignore me.
But for the sake of the site, these blathering debates mostly just clutter the most recent comments section. I’ve learned from experience, walking away is probably the best course of action.
I appreciate your ability to take criticism. Most people would’ve just insulted me back. I wasn’t in a great mood when I wrote that. Apologies.
Understandable, good days and bad days, it happens to us all.
In many pictures he looks very Indian, like he were Jeff Goldblum’s (his more Indian) brother.
Found any pic of him looking Indian, because Indians dont look like that at all. He is more passable as Greek.
andrew,
His phenotype is not unheard of in the British Isles. But I agree, he is very passable as Greek.
You’ve won.
I see a bunny shape in the cloud, and you’ve proven to yourself why I’m inextricably incorrect and that it’s a different shape. You win, you win, you win. My perception is worse than your perception, for 50 reasons. Perception isn’t needed, facts on a piece of paper outweighs my lying eyes/mind.
My opinion is invalid and you don’t even have an opinion on the matter. It’s all fact, measurable, observable, quantifiable, and even theoretically hypothesized, experimentally tested, and data analyzed
and data driven concluded, proven fact.
Subjectivity is not wanted or needed here. Cold hard fact has won the day. My bunny cannot exist.
You win. I still see the bunny though, I’m just wrong, people can be wrong. That’s why I lose this debate and you win. Thanks for the distraction.
Enough already.
If you don’t want your opinions challenged, don’t post them on a public forum. Simple as that.
I am done with this conversation.
Good for you.
Yeravam
I didn’t read your last retort. I’m not going to. I know almost all those that are of Judaic heritage, are in some way, genetically, culturally, or religiously, descended from the Hebrews that were from Canaan or Iraq or wherever the prevailing data suggests, or in the future will no doubt confirm, except maybe Black Hebrew Israelites and probably the Kaifeng Jews. As well as the hundreds of thousands of, to maybe even millions of, converts that have been picked up along the 3000+ years of tangibly documented history of the Jewish people.
I know all this and however it is a matter of absolute corroborated fact, that the Jews in Europe had 600+ years of mixed marriages in Southern Europe from 300BCE to 321 AD, at which time the earliest confirmed established community of Jews in the Rhineland in Cologne was documented. Then there was 1700 years of overall endogamy in Central and East Europe, there were other genes introduced to the gene pool during this time but only a minuscule amount.
These events have formed a new ethnic group, distinct from it’s original population, plain and simple.
You’re trying to prove to me why an apple is better than an orange. It’s a matter of opinion. Neither of us will yield. I can provide facts, you can provide facts, we can choose to ignore each other’s facts and bring up a new contention, round and round it goes.
I’ve had these type of discussions before on this very site, they’re pointless, and help virtually no one. Maybe a dozen people that frequent the site are reading our back and forth, and we’re not saying anything that these people haven’t heard/read before. I’m surprised the administrators haven’t deleted it totally.
This isn’t what the website is designed for. Its mission statement is not to change the perceptions about race, ethnicity, and heritage, it’s more of a catalogue and fun place for the genealogically inquisitive and enthusiastic alike, to come to share some records. With maybe some bone head quips and corny jokes thrown into the comments section from time to time. If you want this kind of format for long public discussion and debate, find a forum, there’s a few out there.
If it makes you feel better, apples are better than oranges, and Ashkenazis and all those in the Levant are identical, and anyone that that says otherwise is face blind. You win.
Fin.
Our indigenous cuisine is very similar to Greek cuisine, although our diaspora cuisine is not. Tahini is ours too, ————-.
We Ashkenazim are an authentic part of the region. Always have been.
I am half Irish and British, and half Middle Eastern (with some Greek and possibly Egyptian ancestry thrown in), specifically Israelite (i.e. Jewish). I am half-white and half-MENA, basically.
This is our heritage too (see Eilot buildings). Mizrahim don’t own everything by themselves. That —- is ours too. We make the same art and build stuff like that too. Sherry said so.
—————————————————————————————–
“I didn’t read your last retort. I’m not going to.”
Then stop replying to me.
“I know almost all those that are of Judaic heritage, are in some way, genetically, culturally, or religiously, descended from the Hebrews that were from Canaan or Iraq”
“In some way” is a dramatic understatement. Our entire identity as an ethnic group and people was born and forged in the Levant. That’s the entire reason we’re called Jews (Judeans) in the first place. More than half of our genes are from the Levant. Our identity, national religion, language, alphabet, core culture, holidays, etc are from the Levant. We are called diaspora Jews in every country except Israel for a reason: because that’s where we originate. That’s where we are indigenous. Not Poland, not Russia, not Hungary, not Germany. Israel.
So, you can’t just say “Ashkenazi Jews are not Middle Eastern” without getting serious pushback. Maybe you don’t personally identify as Middle Eastern. That’s your choice. But you can’t just act as though our Middle Eastern ethnic origins don’t exist or that they’re somehow just relics of a bygone era, when they have literally defined us and our relationship with the world for the past 3000 years (and still do). Ashkenazim who identify as Middle Eastern are not wrong. At all.
Lastly, no. We don’t come from Iraq. Our patriarchs did. We originated in the Levant.
“I know all this and however it is a matter of absolute corroborated fact, that the Jews in Europe had 600+ years of mixed marriages in Southern Europe from 300BCE to 321 AD”
I didn’t deny this (although the dates are a bit off, since most Jews didn’t enter Europe until late antiquity). All I said was that it doesn’t cancel out our Middle Eastern ethnic identity. That’s hardly an unreasonable view.
“These events have formed a new ethnic group, distinct from it’s original population, plain and simple.”
Not really. Ashkenazi Jews are still Jews. We’re a Levantine diaspora population.By definition.
You speak as though we thoroughly assimilated into the European society and gene pool, and became something completely new. We did not. If that were the case, then you’d have a point. However, we didn’t. And so, you don’t.
“If it makes you feel better, apples are better than oranges, and Ashkenazis and all those in the Levant are identical, and anyone that that says otherwise is face blind. You win.”
This is a strawman. I never said this.
Please don’t reply to me again.
Erm, ignore the stuff above the line. That isn’t mine. Accidentally got copied and pasted.
In case anyone is wonder what that stuff above the line is, they’re Facebook comments from one of my groups. I was saving them on a Word Doc to keep track of infractions (people starting fights, derailing the topic).
But I can’t edit it out. I don’t know why.
Because he IS Jewish. 100%.
He doesn’t have Russian roots. He has Russian-Jewish roots. They’re not the same thing.
One is a religion, the other is an ethnicity. Next! (Besides, he’s 100% Indian!)