David Ascalon

David Ascalon was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv

Ascalon was born in Tel Aviv on March 8, 1945. His father was the Hungarian-born sculptor Maurice Ascalon, and David first learned art as his apprentice. His older brother Adir was a painter and sculptor.

As a teenager he moved with his family to the United States. He finished Beverly Hills High School in 1963. He studied art, design and architecture, and earned his degree at Pratt Institute in New York.

In the 1970s he worked in architecture and interior design in New York and for architect Aryeh Elhanani in Tel Aviv. He then turned to abstract metal sculpture made with a welding torch.

He moved to the Philadelphia area and founded Ascalon Studios with his father. The studio has made hundreds of sculptures, stained glass windows and mosaics across North America, many for synagogues, including Holocaust memorials. He served as president of the American Guild of Judaic Art.

In 2010 he filed a federal lawsuit on artists' rights in the restoration of public sculpture. In April 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, his studio produced intubation safety boxes and donated them to American hospitals. He lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and in the Hamptons.