Yip Harburg — lyricist (wizard oz) with roots in the Russian Empire
Yip Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg) was an American lyricist born in New York to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents who wrote some of the most beloved songs in American popular music — Somewhere Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz), Brother Can You Spare a Dime (the anthem of the Great Depression), and It's Only a Paper Moon.
Tracing the roots — Russia (Jewish)
Born in the Lower East Side of New York in 1896 to parents who had emigrated from Russia (Russian Empire), Harburg grew up in poverty in the Jewish immigrant tenements. His Depression-era anthem Brother Can You Spare a Dime — written from the perspective of a WWI veteran now homeless — is one of the most politically direct songs ever written by the child of immigrants.
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Russia (Jewish). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.