Prof. Shlomo Mashiach, one of the founders of fertility medicine in Israel and a pioneer of in vitro fertilization, died Tuesday at the age of 89.
Mashiach was widely regarded as the father of IVF treatment in Israel. In 1981, he and Prof. Yehoshua Dor established the country’s first IVF unit at Sheba Medical Center after studying the technology developed by British Nobel laureate Robert Edwards.
Prof. Shlomo Mashiach
(Photo: Tal Shachar)
A year later, their team achieved Israel’s first successful IVF pregnancy, resulting in the birth of journalist Romi Neumark, the country’s first test-tube baby and the fifth born worldwide through the procedure.
Mashiach later headed Sheba’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and, after leaving the hospital in 2002, led the IVF unit at Assuta Medical Center.
He was also among the founders of Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine, served as chairman of the Israel Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and published about 500 scientific papers during his career.
Beyond IVF, Mashiach helped introduce advanced treatments for male infertility and surgical laparoscopy in gynecology. His work enabled hundreds of thousands of women facing infertility to pursue pregnancy and childbirth.
Mashiach, a Tel Aviv native, was awarded the title of distinguished citizen of Tel Aviv-Jaffa in 2011. He is survived by two sons.