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Oscar-Winning Jewish Director-Actor Jesse Eisenberg Gets Polish Citizenship After Filming ‘A Real Pain’ in Poland
Jesse Eisenberg holding his Polish citizenship certificate presented to him by President Andrzej Duda during a ceremony at the Polish Mission to the United Nations in New York on March 4, 2025. Photo: Marek Borawski/KPRP/Cover Images via Reuters Connect
Actor and director Jesse Eisenberg recently received Polish citizenship after filming in the Eastern European country the Oscar-winning drama “A Real Pain,” which is about two cousins who go on a Jewish heritage tour through Poland to learn about their family history.
Polish President Andrzej Duda presented Eisenberg with the citizenship certificate during a ceremony at the Polish Mission to the United Nations in New York on March 4. “I want to express my happiness, and the happiness of my compatriots, that we have a new citizen,” said Duda. “I am pleased that people from around the world remember their origins, that their ancestors came from Poland, and want to connect with our country.” Eisenberg, whose has family ties to Poland and the Holocaust, said receiving Polish citizenship is “an honor of a lifetime” and something he had been interested in pursuing for two decades.
“While we were filming ‘A Real Pain’ in Poland, and I was walking the streets and starting to get a little more comfortable in the country, it occurred to me that my family lived in this place for far longer than we lived in New York,” he said at the ceremony. “And of course of the history ended so tragically, but in addition to that, is the tragedy that my family didn’t feel any connection anymore to Poland. And that saddened me and confirmed to me that I really wanted to try to reconnect as much as possible. I really hope this amazing honor is the first step in me on behalf of my family reconnecting to this beautiful country.”
Eisenberg revealed last year that he had applied for Polish citizenship. The Oscar winner told the Polish broadcaster TVN at the time that he feels a deep connection to Poland and wants to help improve Polish-Jewish relations. His wife and the mother of his son, Anna Strout, also has family roots in Poland. The “Social Network” star first visited Poland in 2007. He said last year that much of “A Real Pain” is based on his family’s personal history. His ancestors hailed from the town of Krasnystaw in southeast Poland and many of his family members died in the Holocaust. Last year, the town council of Krasnystaw awarded him honorary local citizenship. His great-aunt Doris fled Poland for the United States in 1938. She died in 2019 at the age of 106.
“I became obsessed with my family’s history during the war when I was 19 years old,” Eisenberg said in 2020. “I would see my aunt every week — she died last year at 106 … She was born in Poland and then when she was about nine she came to America … I became really fascinated and it was interesting for me as an American teenager to have some connection to something that was so much more historically relevant than my own life.”
“A Real Pain” tells the fictional story of two American-Jewish cousins – played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin – who reconnect to participate in a Jewish heritage tour in Poland to learn more about their Jewish roots and the Holocaust following the death of their grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor. The movie was filmed in Poland and included scenes at the former Nazi concentration camp of Majdanek, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial. “A Real Pain” features a scene that was even filmed in the small apartment that Eisenberg’s family fled from during World War II.
Eisenberg wrote, directed, produced and starred in “A Real Pain.” He has won a number of awards for the film, including a BAFTA and Independent Spirit Award, both for best original screenplay, and the Culkin has taken home several honors this season for best supporting actor, including an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award.
Eisenberg has starred in and wrote other projects that have ties to Poland or the Holocaust, including the 2020 war drama “Resistance” and his 2013 play “The Revisionist.”
The post Oscar-Winning Jewish Director-Actor Jesse Eisenberg Gets Polish Citizenship After Filming ‘A Real Pain’ in Poland first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.