(1867-1932)
Palestinian painter and sculptor, of Lithuanian origin. He was born in Varna, in the province of Kovno. He studied sculpture in Paris, and in 1895 became court sculptor to Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. At the Zionist Congress of 1905 he proposed the idea of an art school in Palestine. In 1906 he went to Jerusalem, where he established the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. He produced sculptures dealing with Jewish religious practices, biblical subjects and Jewish leaders.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography. Dan Cohn-Sherbok.