Eli Marienthal

Marienthal in 2002, photo by Prphotos.com

Birth Name: Eli David Marienthal

Place of Birth: Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: March 6, 1986

Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish

Eli Marienthal is an American actor. He is known for voicing Hogarth Hughes in The Iron Giant, and for his roles in the films Slums of Beverly Hills, American Pie, and its sequel; The Country Bears, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, and television’s Unlikely Angel, Tucker, and The Zeta Project.

His parents, Joseph Cross, a journalist, and Penny Marienthal, are both Jewish. His siblings are actors Harley Cross and Flora Cross. He was raised in Berkeley.

Eli’s paternal grandmother was named Flora. She was from Drohobych, Ukraine.

Eli’s maternal grandfather was Helmut “Harold”/”Hal” Seymour Marienthal (born Helmut Schoemann, the son of Oskar/Oscar Schoemann/Schumann/Schömann and Antoinette “Tonie”/Toni Kahn). Eli’s grandfather Harold was born in Frankfurt, Germany, to a Jewish family. He was sent to the U.S., to Chicago, to escape the Nazi regime. There, he was raised by another Jewish couple, Richard Jacob Marienthal, who was born in Hoxter, Germany, and Rae Goldberg, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Eli’s great-grandfather Oskar was born in Zeltingen-Rachtig, Rhineland-Palatinate, the son of Jakob Schoemann and Henriette Mayer. He was killed in the Holocaust, in Auschwitz, in 1942. Eli’s great-grandmother Tonie was born in Frankfurt.

Eli’s maternal grandmother was Elaine Harriet Wittert (the daughter of Alfred H. Wittert and Dorothy Goldfarb). Elaine was born in Illinois, to a Jewish family. Alfred was born in Illinois, to parents from Lithuania/the Russian Empire, Leyb/Louis Vitort/Wittert and Anne Gillis. Dorothy was the daughter of Louis Goldfarb, from Kraków, Poland, and of Lena Nussbaum.

Sources: Genealogy of Eli’s mother (focusing on her father’s side) – http://ahnenreich.de

Genealogy of Eli’s maternal grandfather, Helmut “Harold”/”Hal” Seymour Marienthal (focusing on his own father’s side) – https://www.geni.com

Eli’s maternal grandmother, Elaine Harriet Wittert, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org