Jake Gyllenhaal — actor with roots in the Russian Empire
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal was born in Los Angeles on 19 December 1980, the son of the director Stephen Gyllenhaal and the screenwriter Naomi Foner, and the younger brother of the actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. His connection to the Russian Empire runs through his mother's mother and is documented only at the level of the country.
Naomi Foner was born Naomi Achs in Brooklyn in 1946, the daughter of two doctors, Samuel Achs (1919-2014) and Ruth Silbowitz (1920-1968), both born in New York. Their parents were Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Published accounts of the family differ in detail, naming Russia, Latvia and Poland, but they agree that Ruth's parents were Latvian Jews; one biographical note places their roots in Dvinsk, today Daugavpils. Because Ruth was born in New York in 1920, her parents had left Latvian territory by then, and until 1918 that territory belonged to the Russian Empire. The town and the date of emigration are not established. The Achs side of the family came from Galicia, which was Austrian.
His father belongs to the Gyllenhaal family of the Swedish nobility, and was raised in the Swedenborgian church. Naomi Foner has said that she brought her children up to think of themselves as Jews. Her own screenplay Running on Empty won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination.
Gyllenhaal made his screen debut at ten in City Slickers (1991) and appeared in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). October Sky (1999) and Donnie Darko (2001) made his name. As Jack Twist in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005) he won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for the Academy Award. He worked twice with Denis Villeneuve, in Prisoners and Enemy (both 2013), and received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Nightcrawler (2014), followed by a BAFTA nomination for Nocturnal Animals (2016). In 2019 he played Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
On stage he won an Evening Standard Award in London for This Is Our Youth, played Georges Seurat in the 2017 Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Sea Wall/A Life. His company, Nine Stories, produced both Broadway productions.
"Maternal grandmother Ruth Silbowitz was born in New York in 1920 to Latvian Jewish immigrants; Latvian territory belonged to the Russian Empire until 1918. Town and emigration date not documented."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Latvia, Russian Empire (town not documented)
His mother's mother, Ruth Silbowitz, was born in New York in 1920 to Latvian Jewish immigrants, so the family had left Latvian territory, part of the Russian Empire until 1918. Published sources do not name the town with certainty or the date of emigration.
Mother Naomi Foner (born Achs, 1946) is the daughter of doctors Samuel Achs and Ruth Silbowitz, both New York-born. Ruth's parents were Latvian Jewish immigrants (one account names Dvinsk/Daugavpils); the Achs side came from Austrian Galicia. Father's family is the Swedish Gyllenhaal family.
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Latvia, Russian Empire (town not documented). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.