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 – https://www.geni.com
Josh Gad’s paternal ancestors went through India before finally settling in Afghanistan from where? Were they Kurdish Jews or what? He could even be Persian Jewish or Iranian Jewish, or even Turkish Jewish (because of his Sephardic counterpart) from his father’s side.
There was probably some assimilation by other Afghans (especially the Turks of Afghanistan) into Afghan Jews which we know as mostly Mizrahim, if I remember correctly, but Josh Gad hasn’t sad anything about where the exact origins of his father’s line was before living in Afghanistan and India.
Add the ‘Kurdish Jew’ tag please.
Additionally, his mother has remote Croatian Jewish ancestry, and as I deeply investigated through his mother’s family ancestry tree, his maternal ancestors have possibly migrated through Italy before moving to Poland.
Add the ‘Croatian Jewish’ tag as well.
Jews whose ancestors hail from Muslim/Arab countries are considered Mizrahi Jews as well.
Add that ‘Mizrahi Jewish’ tag.
Jamie Roberts is the Welsh version of this guy
have you ever watched a rugby game? it’s 100 times better than American football.
Damn he has the smallest nose that I’ve ever seen.
correction; his eyes are hazel (light brown) and his hair is virtually black (noiret)