Documentary filmmaker.
Born in Riga, Latvia. In 1970 Maftsir was arrested by the KGB. and was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of Zionist activity. Immigrated in 1971. Graduated from the first graduating class of the Department of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University.
For years Maftsir worked as a producer in the Israeli film Service. From 1994 to 1999 he was the Service manager.
In 2009 Maftsir founded and until 2014 managed the documentary film department at the Haifa WIZO Academic Center.
Management positions: Director of the Department of Culture and Art, Ministry of Education and Culture (1998-1999). Director General of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption (1999-2001). Head of Delegation of the Jewish Agency in Russia, Belarus and the Baltic States (2003-2005). Director of the Yad Vashem Project to recover the names of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust in the Soviet Union territories (2006-2012).
In recent years Maftsir has been working exclusively on a documentary project on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.
Producer over 200 documentary films and television documentaries.