David Heinz Gumbel

David Heinz Gumbel was born in 1906 in Sinsheim

Gumbel was born Detlev Heinz Gumbel in Sinsheim, Germany, on October 10, 1906. His secular family made metal and silver goods. In 1918 the family moved to Heilbronn, where he apprenticed at the Bruckmann & Sons factory and trained as a steel engraver.

In the late 1920s he studied silversmithing at the school of applied arts in Berlin. He then worked in workshops in Düsseldorf and Stockholm and in the family factory in Heilbronn. There he designed handmade modern silver pieces and also made Jewish ritual objects such as Hanukkah lamps and candlesticks.

In 1936 he moved to the Land of Israel and joined New Bezalel in Jerusalem as a teacher and head of the metal department, alongside Ludwig Yehuda Wolpert. He began to use typography in his work and kept teaching manual methods such as repoussé. In the early 1940s he opened his own workshop for metal work and Judaica.

He retired from Bezalel in 1955. His works include a silver pouch for the Declaration of Independence scroll and mezuzot for the Supreme Court. He died on November 4, 1992, was buried at Har HaMenuchot, and left the continuation of his work to the artist Malka Cohavi.