Garfunkel Iosif (b. 1910, Riga – d. 1996) – engineer, actor, and director of the Jewish theatre.

Iosif Garfunkel was educated in a Jewish school and, upon graduation, completed a two-year course in acting and directing. At the insistence of his parents, he later graduated from a technical college in Prague with a degree in textile engineering.

Upon returning to Riga, he joined the Riga Jewish Theatre. Between 1933 and 1940, he directed productions including The Golem by H. Leivick, The Golden Chain by I.L. Peretz, and It Doesn’t Work by Sholem Aleichem, among others. In 1940, he moved to the New Jewish Theatre in Riga, where he performed in productions such as The Travels of Benjamin III by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Zyamke the Digger by M. Daniel, and The Death of the Musician by I.L. Peretz.

With the onset of war, Iosif Garfunkel was evacuated to Novosibirsk, where he joined the Minsk Jewish Theatre troupe. He worked there until 1945, appearing in plays by A. Goldfaden such as Bar Kochba, Sulamith, and The Witch, as well as Orphan Khassya by J. Gordin and The Fiddler by Sh. Halkin.

After the war, he returned to Latvia and, together with former colleagues, attempted to revive the Jewish theatre in Riga. He travelled to Moscow and established close ties with the State Jewish Theatre (GOSET) and personally with Solomon Mikhoels. However, as the wave of antisemitism and repression of Jewish cultural figures intensified, the revival of a Jewish theatre became impossible.

Forced to rely on his secondary profession, Garfunkel worked at a textile enterprise. In 1960, he and a group of Jewish cultural activists in Riga managed—with difficulty—to obtain permission to establish a Jewish amateur theatre studio. There, he staged Sholem Aleichem’s plays Doctors!, People, and monologues from various works. These performances were enthusiastically received by Jewish audiences. However, after just seven shows, the authorities banned further activity, citing the official position that Jewish cultural life should be developed in Birobidzhan, not Latvia.

Deprived of his life's passion, Garfunkel emigrated to the United States with his family in 1980.