Palombo David (Israel, 1920-1966) born in the Nahalat Shiva neighborhood of Jerusalem to a traditional family of Turkish extraction. In 1934 he began to work in the telephone department of the Israel Postal Authority erecting telephone poles. During this period he was also a member of the “Histadrut HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed” (The General Federation of Students and Young Workers in Israel). In the 1940s he took art lessons at night. In 1948 he went to Paris, where he visited the studio of the sculptor Brunozzi, whose work influenced him. Around 1958 he married the artist Shulamit Sirota. In 1960 he quit his job to devote himself to art. In 1964 he married for the second time to the artist Yona Palombo. The two of them went to live in an abandoned home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1966 he was killed when the motorcycle on which he was riding ran into a chain the ultra-orthodox Jews had stretched across the street to prevent the desecration of Shabbat. His widow opened a museum in their home that was active until the year 2000.
