Henry H. Neufeld was born in Lwowek, Poland on March 13, 1923. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Vienna in 1948 and completed his 3 years residency in this same town. From 1951 to 1959 he served as a cardiologist at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. After working for two years as a research fellow under E.H. Wood at the May, Henry Neufeld returned to the Chaim Sheba Medical Center to direct the new Heart Institute. He was quickly promoted to Professor of Medicine, Israeli Minister of Health (1962), Professor of Cardiology, Chaim Sheba Chair of Cardiology, Tel Aviv University Medical School. Prof. Neufeld chaired several major committees in the Tel Aviv University Medical School, the University Senate and finally got the title of Distinguished Professor of Cardiology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Professor Neufeld made extraordinarily wide contributions as a member of various Heart Foundations and Heart Societies. He was President of the Israel Heart Association, of the Asian-Pacific Society of Cardiology and President of the International Society and Federation of Cardiology (now called World Heart Federation) in 1981 and 1982. He worked in several committees of the World Health Organization, including the WHO Task Force against heart disease. In 1985 he received the Israel Prize for Medicine. He was an honorary member of several foreign cardiac associations and held a Honorary Citation for International Achievement of the American Heart Association. He published over 400 articles in major cardiology journals, 10 books and 22 book chapters. Henry Neufeld tried at least once per year to escape all his numerous obligations in taking a summer holiday in Klosters, a small mountain village in Eastern Switzerland, where Prof. Rutishauser met him for the first time.
Professor Neufeld believed that the conquest of one of the greatest enemies of human life, heart disease, could be achieved through the common striving and determination of doctors, laymen, and governments working together in freedom, friendship, and mutual understanding. Unfortunately, this man of great academic and personal distinction, excellent clinician and outstanding humanitarian and leader, died suddenly in December 1986.