Chaim Witz , known professionally by his stage name Gene Simmons, is an IsraeliAmerican musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor and television personality. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bass guitarist and colead singer of Kiss, the rock band he cofounded with rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley in the early 1970s.
Chaim Witz was born at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel on August 25, 1949. At age 8, he immigrated to New York with his mother. Simmons was raised in a Jewish home where he practiced on his guitar hours without end. His mother, Flra Florence Klein , was born in Jnd, Hungary. The name Klein, which means small in German, has the Hungarian equivalent Kis this, however, did not give the band its name. Simmons mother survived internment in Nazi concentration camps. She and her brother, Larry Klein, were the only members of the family to survive the Holocaust.
Source: Wikipedia