Jacob Goldwasser

Jacob Goldwasser was born in Tel Aviv on 11 September 1950 to parents who had immigrated from Poland. He grew up in Tel Aviv and remained closely identified with the city throughout his career. At age 12 he moved with his parents to Australia for roughly a year, then returned to Israel. That childhood dislocation later informed the family drama of Beyond the Sea, which he said was loosely based on his own biography.

From age 15 he began making short films with his friend Yaky Yosha, entering Israeli cinema through practice rather than a conventional academy path. Hebrew Wikipedia and contemporary obituaries place his parents' Polish origin and Tel Aviv childhood at the center of his early identity as an Israeli filmmaker of immigrant stock.

Goldwasser did not study film in a formal degree program. Profiles in the Hebrew cinema database EDB and the Directors Guild of Israel describe him as learning by doing: editing, producing, writing and directing across departments before he became known as a feature director.

His early credits include the short Reut (1969), editing Yosha's Shalom, Prayer for the Road (1973), and producing Transit (1980). Later he taught directing at Tel Aviv University, Beit Berl's art school, Bezalel, the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Ma'aleh and other Israeli institutions, turning his workshop experience into classroom craft for a new generation.

Goldwasser's first feature, Under the Nose (1982), written by Haim Marin from a real 1976 police-headquarters theft, launched Moshe Ivgy and Uri Gavriel and became an Israeli cult classic. Abba Ganuv (1987) with Yehuda Barkan followed as a popular custody drama and trilogy starter. Beyond the Sea (1991) was his awards peak: multiple Ophir Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and Israel's Oscar submission. Max and Morris (1994) returned to crime comedy with Ivgy and Gavriel. She's Got It (2006) and Laces (2018) completed his later feature slate, the last inspired by his son Uri.

Across these films he worked repeatedly with Marin, building a shared language that mixed street humor, social observation and family crisis. The Jerusalem Film Center and Israeli press treat the 1980s-90s titles as core Israeli popular cinema, while Laces is widely framed as his most autobiographical work.

In the early 2000s Goldwasser became a major television drama director. Reaching for Heaven (from 2000), starring Orly Zilbershatz and Yoram Hatab, followed a secular family after the father becomes religious. It won best drama series at the Jerusalem Film Festival and at the Israeli Television Academy.

Meorav Yerushalmi (from 2003), with Shmil Ben Ari and Sarah von Schwarze, tracked a traditional Jerusalem family through questions of religion and secularization across multiple seasons and collected three Television Academy Awards, including for the series and its leads. Directors Guild notes list him as principal director across seasons on Channel 10 and Keshet. These series extended his Marin-era collaboration into long-form television.

Goldwasser was married to painter Mira Tseder-Goldwasser. Their sons include Uri, who has special needs and whose life shaped Laces, and Itamar (born 28 May 1987), a musician and film editor who co-edited Laces and later won an Israeli Television Academy editing award for The Chef (HaTabach).

In a 2018 Haaretz interview with Nirit Anderman, Goldwasser called Laces his most personal film and spoke about decades of family reckoning before he felt able to put that story on screen. Festival notes and Seret International materials likewise state that he has a son with special needs and that the film raises hard questions about disability and parental responsibility. He lived and worked in Tel Aviv.

EDB biographical notes record that Goldwasser described himself as an atheist even while directing major television dramas about religious return and traditional Jewish family life. He treated faith as dramatic material rather than personal doctrine, giving secular and religious characters equal narrative weight in Reaching for Heaven and Meorav Yerushalmi.

He also defended popular cinema. Under the Nose, Abba Ganuv and Max and Morris reached wide Israeli audiences and later cult status, while Beyond the Sea and Laces showed his parallel commitment to emotionally direct family drama. He often said commercials paid the bills that features and prestige TV could not always cover.

Israeli obituaries in September 2026 placed Goldwasser among the filmmakers who shaped national screen identity in the late twentieth century. Under the Nose and Abba Ganuv remain endlessly quoted and rewatched; Beyond the Sea stands as a major Ophir sweep and Oscar submission; Meorav Yerushalmi remains a landmark of Israeli TV drama about faith and family.

As a teacher and Israeli Film Academy board member, he also influenced younger directors. His final feature, Laces, broadened Israeli mainstream attention to disability and father-son repair, winning festival audience awards abroad and an Ophir for Doval'e Glickman.

Beyond the Sea (1991) won Ophir Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Goldwasser), Best Actor (Aryeh Moskona), Best Actress (Dafna Rechter), Best Supporting Actress (Mili Avital), Best Screenplay (Haim Marin), Best Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Composer, and was Israel's foreign-language Oscar submission.

Reaching for Heaven won best drama series at the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Israeli Television Academy. Meorav Yerushalmi won three Television Academy Awards. Laces received eight Ophir nominations including Best Picture; Doval'e Glickman won Best Supporting Actor. Laces also took audience awards at the Atlanta and Seattle Jewish film festivals.

Besides directing, Goldwasser worked as editor, producer and commercials director. He taught directing at Tel Aviv University, Beit Berl, Bezalel, Sam Spiegel, Ma'aleh and other schools. He was a member of the Israeli Academy of Film board and listed with the Directors Guild of Israel, which published his filmography and Tel Aviv contact details including his Facebook page.

His films are held and programmed by the Jerusalem Film Center / Israel Film Archive, and titles such as Laces and Beyond the Sea appear in international festival and educational contexts.

Jacob Goldwasser died on 24 September 2026 at the age of 76. Ynet, Walla, ice, Srugim and other Israeli outlets reported the death the same day, recalling Under the Nose, Abba Ganuv, Beyond the Sea, Max and Morris, his television dramas and Laces.

Ynet reported that the funeral would take place on 25 September 2026 at 10:30 at Yarkon Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Mira Tseder-Goldwasser and sons Uri and Itamar. Cause of death was not made public in the major obituaries checked for this profile.