📍Haifa, Israel
1949 – 1958“Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, in August 1949, the only child of Flora and Feri Witz, Jewish refugees from Hungary. His mother had survived the Nazi concentration camps as a teenager, where much of her family was murdered, and she raised her son with fierce love and determination. Haifa was a busy port city on the slopes of Mount Carmel above the Mediterranean, and his parents were poor; his father, a carpenter, left the family when Chaim was small. Chaim helped his mother, selling fruit by the roadside and gathering cactus fruit to sell, and he spoke Hebrew and Hungarian. He has said his mother was the most important person in his life. In 1958, when he was eight, he emigrated with his mother to the United States, settling in Queens, New York. He spoke no English when he arrived, and he learned it from comic books and television, especially science fiction and monster films, which shaped his later stage persona. He studied at a yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, for a time, and he changed his name to Gene Simmons. He went on to study at Richmond College on Staten Island and became a sixth-grade teacher in Spanish Harlem, while playing in bands. In 1973 he co-founded Kiss with Paul Stanley, breathing fire and spitting blood as the Demon, and Kiss became one of the best-selling bands in history. He has often spoken of his mother's courage and of his gratitude to the country that welcomed them, and he has visited Israel and Haifa, the city of his birth.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today