Joseph Cedar — director with roots in the Russian Empire
Joseph Cedar (born 31 August 1968, New York) is an Israeli film director and screenwriter. His family moved to Israel when he was six and he grew up in Jerusalem. Beaufort (2007) won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film; Footnote (2011) won Best Screenplay at Cannes and was also nominated for that Oscar. He later wrote and directed the English-language film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.
Tracing the roots — Russian Empire
Cedar was born in New York in 1968, the son of the molecular biologist Howard Cedar (born New York, 1943), and moved with his family to Israel at the age of six. No source consulted documents a Russian Empire or Soviet origin for any of his ancestors.
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At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.