Zahara Schatz

Zahara Schatz was born in 1916 in Jerusalem

Zahara Schatz was born in Jerusalem on July 20, 1916. Her father was Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel art school, and her mother was Olga Pevzner-Schatz. Her older brother Bezalel was also an artist.

She finished high school at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem in 1933. She then studied art in Paris, at the National School of Decorative Arts and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

She moved to California, taught art in Berkeley and married the sculptor Elliott Franz Sandow. She began working in plastic in the 1940s and made acrylic lamps. In 1951 one of her lamp designs won an award at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 1951 she returned to Israel and founded the Yaad craft workshop with her brother and his wife Louise. She designed a gate for the President's House, took part in the 1959 Venice Biennale and advised the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on industrial design. In 1960 she designed the Yad Vashem menorah, which later became its symbol.

She received the Israel Prize in 1955 and a lifetime achievement prize in 1991. She died in Jerusalem on August 4, 1999, and was buried at Har HaMenuchot.