Artist who sculpted Knesset gates with her husband killed in Jerusalem fire

An elderly woman who died Saturday in a fire near King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem’s Old City was named Sunday as artist Yona Palombo, 87, who together with her late husband sculpted the Knesset’s first gates.

She was born in Chile and in 1964 she married famed sculptor David Palombo, known for his metal sculptures, which have adorned many national institutions across Israel.

Among these are the gates for the Yizkor (memorial) Tent at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the previous entrance gates to the Knesset — which he created together with Yona.

The gates were replaced with glass doors after the parliament underwent renovation in 2007.

David Palombo was killed in 1966, when the motorcycle he was riding ran into a chain the Religious Affairs Ministry had stretched across the street to prevent the desecration of Shabbat.

Yona opened a museum in their home, which was active until the year 2000.

הותר לפרסום: אישה שנספתה אמש בשריפה בדירתה בירושלים היא יונה פלומבו (87), אלמנתו של הפסל דוד פלומבו שעיצב את שער פלומבו המפורסם שהיה שער החצר לכנסת במשך שנים. פלומבו עצמו נהרג בתאונת דרכים ב66׳ כשהקטנוע שעליו נהג נתקל בשרשרת למניעת מעבר כלי רכב בשבת שהוצבה על ידי משרד הדתות בזמנו pic.twitter.com/UZXIxUT0jp

— Haim Goldich | חיים גולדיטש (@HGoldich) January 30, 2022

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth in 2006, on the 40th anniversary of David’s passing, Yona said: “After David was killed, I did not get married because I did not want to lose my freedom. Only if David rises from his grave and wants to carry me again — will I marry him. I could not find someone who would suit me like David. We were so similar in many things. I was his welder. His loyal worker. I welded where he said and did not open my mouth so as not to hurt his creativity.”

In a later interview, when asked how his death affected her, Yona said: “You will be surprised, but even though he died because of religious coercion, I became religious following his death. I was an atheist, but I now believe in God because I have no other way to explain his death than in God taking the good to be among him. I have no quarrel with religion, only with bastard agents of religion.”