Joseph Lessing

Joseph Lessing was born in 1947 in Austria

Lessing was born in 1947 in a refugee camp in Austria. His parents were pharmacists from Poland who survived the Holocaust. The family moved to Israel when he was one, and he grew up in Tel Aviv, where he attended Tichon Hadash high school.

He joined the IDF in 1965 and served in the Nahal Brigade, fighting in the Six-Day War. He later studied medicine at Tel Aviv University. In 1973 he went on a student exchange to New York University, but returned to fight in the Yom Kippur War, then completed his studies with high honors.

In 1976 he began his residency, soon moving to gynecology at Kirya Hospital. From 1982 to 1984 he did a research fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at New York University. In 1984 he became a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and in 1996 an associate professor, later full professor.

In 1997 he led the merger of the women's departments into one division at Lis Maternity Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. He chaired the Israeli Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and published hundreds of research papers. From 2015 to 2021 he headed obstetrics and gynecology at Mayanei Hayeshua.

From 2012 he hosted the radio program Nine Months on 99FM, about pregnancy and birth. He was married to Nurit, had 3 children and lived in Tel Aviv. He died in 2021.