Ascalon Studios, Inc.

12/10/2025

Some local Ascalon Family art history from the pages of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer…

The meaning of David Ascalon’s “Totem” sculpture is in the eyes of the beholder.

12/23/2024

Wonderful article by David Matlow in the Canadian Jewish News on a unique historic memorial designed by Maurice Ascalon for his Pal-Bell Company in Tel Aviv. Just in time for Chanukah!
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This week’s Treasure Trove in the Canadian Jewish News (The CJN) celebrates Hannukah and reminds us to light one candle this year to bind us together with peace as the song in our hearts. Don’t let that light go out!

This laurel branch Hanukkah menorah, designed by artist Maurice Ascalon (1913-2003), won first prize at the 1950 Tel Aviv Design Competition. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of these were made by the Pal-Bell factory in Israel, and they were sold not only in Israel but in select department stores around the world, including Macy's in New York and Harrods in London.

The shape of the oil containers resembles ancient Roman lamps, while the large pitcher is a reference to the single jug of oil that lasted for eight days that is at the heart of the Hanukkah story.

These hanukkiyot were manufactured out of cast bronze with a green patina that was created using reactive chemicals, a process developed by Ascalon, resulting in an antique verdigris look.

Ascalon, who was born in Hungary and originally named Moshe Klein, immigrated to Palestine in 1934 after training in Brussels and Milan. He started the Pal-Bell Company in the late 1930s for the production of ritual and secular decorative items. “Pal” is short for Palestine and “Bell” is short for bellezza, Italian for beauty and an allusion to his time in Milan where the artist learned and perfected his sculpting skills. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Ascalon designed munitions for the Israeli army and, at the request of the Israeli government, retrofitted his factory to produce arms for the war effort.

Ascalon closed Pal-Bell and moved to the United States in 1956, where he taught sculpture at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and opened Ascalon Studios, Inc. which produces large-scale sculptures for public spaces and houses of worship.

The studio, which is now run by Ascalon’s son David Ascalon and his grandson Eric Ascalon, was retooled during the COVID pandemic to manufacture safety boxes that allowed health-care workers to assist a patient on a ventilator while minimizing exposure.

Treasure Trove wishes you a happy Hanukkah , which starts on Dec. 25. This year, as Peter, Paul and Mary sang, “Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice, justice and freedom demand. Don’t let the light go out!”

Hear Peter, Paul and Mary sing Light One Candle at this link:

https://youtu.be/h1cRXgDFiSs

11/20/2023

This wonderful 14-foot tall public sculpture at the Philadelphia Union's Subaru Park - designed and implemented the talented TerraCycle Design Team - was recently unveiled. It takes the form of a giant mandala-faced soccer ball composed of bottles, cans, and other items collected from the stadium. The artwork was commissioned by Subaru of America, Inc. to celebrate the venue as the first Zero Landfill soccer stadium in the US. Watch the news clip linked in Comments to learn more about this exciting project.

11/18/2023

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Father, son & Bob, 9 years ago today in NJBIZ Magazine.

08/15/2023

We received word today that only 20 pieces remain of the 250 limited edition commemorative replicas of Maurice Ascalon’s facade sculpture for the 1939 New York World’s fair. Click the link for more info.

https://www.pieceofhistory.com/thejewishpavilion?utm_campaign=f7e2d3b1-cb20-4ecb-946a-55ba2c2eadae&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=975b9931-8ec1-4332-8b7d-2ca3ca23dd6a

06/21/2023

It’s been years since I’ve been to Harrisburg. While there on business today, I did what I do every time I come to Pennsylvania’s capital. I head to the Susquehanna River, and visit a public sculpture my father created in 1994: The Holocaust Memorial for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There I sit for a moment and I reflect. I reflect on the atrocities that consumed so many, including members of my own family. I sit for a moment and reflect on how it is possible for human beings — in modern times — to exact such methodical cruelty upon their own species.

Invariably my mind is taken to a place of disbelief. Not disbelief in the denial sense; rather disbelief in the sense that I am stricken with an almost surreal moment of cognitive dissonance. When I ponder such a thing as the Holocaust, it defies my fundamental belief in the general goodness of people. As I continue to ponder, my mind then begins to spiral down a rabbit hole of despair, until I shake myself out of my contemplative state. And then I somehow proceed about my day, kicking the can that is my overwhelmingly intense thoughts down the road as if they will somehow eventually resolve themselves (but just not today).

When my father first created this meaningful memorial, almost 30 years ago, the world was still filled with so very many survivors of the Holocaust who could bear witness — first hand — as to the existence and nature of the atrocities. Today, there are few survivors that remain. My own grandfather Henry, a survivor of Auschwitz, passed away last year at the age of 98. In a decade or two, there will be no more who can — first hand — bear witness. Then what?

In a world where we cannot even all agree that the Earth is spherical, I dread the form and scale that Holocaust denial might take in the not-so-distant future. We cannot let it get to that. We must talk about it. Often. We must not shake ourselves out of our contemplative state when we go down the rabbit hole. We must — with every fiber of our existence — pledge to defy the sort of evil that allowed it to happen. When the last survivor is laid to rest, the burden to bear witness becomes all of ours. We must all then build our own monuments in whatever ways we can. We must all have the courage to act in whatever ways we can to defeat hatred, intolerance, ignorance, and bigotry.

“The Holocaust can happen again
To anyone anywhere unless
Anti-semitism
Racism
Prejudice
Are rooted out”
- Holocaust Memorial for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by David Ascalon, 1994

06/14/2023

Maurice Ascalon and the World’s Fair sculpture…

84 years ago, Maurice Ascalon created a masterpiece. At the age of 26, Ascalon, a longtime Cherry Hill resident, created an enormous copper relief sculpture for the façade of the Jewish Palestine Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The pavilion attracted two million visitors and luminary ...

05/25/2023

On Ascalon Studios cofounder Maurice Ascalon…

Maurice Ascalon’s 1939 World’s Fair sculpture was just the start of an unlikely career

05/16/2023

Some exciting Ascalon family history transpiring...

From the British Mandate, to the 1939 New York World's Fair, to Chicago's Lake Shore Drive; After 84 Years, a Return to Israel is Imminent.

01/16/2023

Like Martin Luther King, Jr., the great Zionist leader believed that we are not free until all of us are free.

12/19/2022

Happy Hanukkah! 🕎
Pictured: Maurice Ascalon’s laurel branch oil-burning chanukkia (Hanukkah menorah) for Pal Bell Co. Ltd., Tel-Aviv. Bronze with chemical-induced green patina (verdigris), circa 1948.