Steven Spielberg

Spielberg in 2011, Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

Birth Name: Steven Allan Spielberg

Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

Date of Birth: December 18, 1946

Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish

Steven Spielberg is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has twice won the Academy Award for Best Director, for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). He has also directed Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Color Purple, Jurassic Park, Amistad, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Munich, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, Ready Player One, and The Fabelmans.

Steven is the son of Leah Frances (Posner) Adler, a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Meyer Spielberg, an electrical engineer, involved in the computer industry. Among his siblings are Anne Spielberg, a writer and producer, and Nancy Spielberg, who has also worked as a producer. His family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey, in 1952, and then to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1957, settling in California a few years later.

Steven was born into a Jewish family, from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania. He stated in an article in the New York Times that he was often bullied in school in California for being Jewish. His family has ties to victims of the Holocaust, in the Ukraine and Poland.

Steven is married to actress Kate Capshaw. Kate is a convert to Orthodox Judaism. Steven has a son with his former wife, actress Amy Irving; and five children with Kate, including musician Theo Spielberg, actress and musician Sasha Spielberg, and film director and actress Destry Spielberg. His stepdaughter is actress Jessica Capshaw.

Steven is one of the founders of the studio DreamWorks SKG, along with David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Steven’s paternal grandfather was Shmuel/Samuel C. Spielberg (the son of Mayer/Meyer Pesach Spielberg and Bertha/Bessie Sandelman/Sandleman). Shmuel was born in Kamenets-Podolski, Ukraine.

Steven’s paternal grandmother was Rebecca Chechick/Chichik (the daughter of Nachman/Nathan Morduhov Chechik and Reitzl/Rachel Nigonova Gendler/Hendler). Rebecca was born in Sudylkiv, Ukraine. Nachman was the son of Max/Mordechai Chechik.

Steven’s maternal grandfather was Fievel/Phillip/Philip Posner (the son of Simon S. Posner and Miriam Rasinsky). Phillip was born in Odessa, Russian Empire, now in Ukraine. Simon was the son of Ezekiel/Ekusiel Posner and Anna Feldman/Fildman. Miriam was the daughter of Benjamin Rasinsky. The mouse in the film An American Tail (1986) is named Fievel after Steven’s grandfather.

Steven’s maternal grandmother was Jennie Friedman/Fridman (the daughter of Louis Friedman/Fridman and Sarah Leah Nathan). Jennie was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to parents from the Russia-Poland area. Louis was the son of Israel Friedman/Fridman and Sarah Wittstein. Steven’s great-grandmother Sarah was born in Liubavas, Suwałki, Poland, and was the daughter of Reuben Nathan/Kriviansky, whose parents were from Lithuania, and of Anna Fagel Mauerberger.

One ancestral line of Steven’s can be traced back to his maternal great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, Leizer Mauerberger and Sora Berko, who were born in the early 1700s, in Poland.

Sources: http://www.writing.upenn.edu
https://www.cincinnati.com

Genealogy of Steven Spielberg – https://www.geni.com

Interview with Steven’s father – http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu