Maurice Ascalon

The Hungarian-born artist Maurice Ascalon was among the foremost designers of art-deco-style Judaica and introduced the practice of applying chemically induced patina to bronze and brass objects. Ascalon was born Moshe Klein to a Hasidic family, which he left at the age of fifteen in order to pursue his artistic studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He immigrated to Palestine in 1934, where he founded Pal-Bell, a company that produced ritual and secular objects in wood and metal. In 1956, Ascalon moved to the United States, living in New York and Los Angeles while continuing to create decorative and functional metalwork for synagogues, educational institutions, and public spaces across the country.