Polgin Iosif (née Zhuk) (1935, Kaunas, Lithuania) — surgeon.

From 1941 to 1946 Iosif Polgin lived in evacuation; from 1946 he resided in Riga. In 1959 he graduated from the Riga Medical Institute. In 1971 he defended his dissertation “Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiography and Manometry in the Diagnosis of Tumours of the Liver and Bile Ducts” and received the academic degree of Candidate of Medical Sciences.

He worked as a surgeon in Rēzekne (1959–1960), at the 5th City Hospital in Riga (1960–1964), and at the Central Railway Hospital in Riga (1964–1973). Since 1973 he lived in Israel. Until 1985 he worked as a leading surgeon at the Barzilai Municipal Hospital in Ashkelon, and from 1985 to 2002 at one of the country’s largest hospitals, Tel HaShomer Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

He published 32 scientific articles on the diagnosis of tumours of the liver and bile ducts, as well as on surgical treatment of veins of the lower extremities, and presented papers at medical congresses and conferences. He devoted significant attention to training young physicians.

He also studied vocal performance at the Latvian Conservatory and was a soloist in the Jewish choir conducted by Israel Abramis (1957–1962). In 1967 he won third place at the All-Union Vocal Competition.

Selected works:

Traumatic Aneurysm of Peripheral Vessels (Травматическая аневризма периферических сосудов) (with V. N. Zolotoyabko), Vestnik khirurgii, 1969, no. 8, pp. 135–136.

Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Obstructive Jaundice (Диагностика и хирургическое лечение обтурационных желтух) (collective authors), Khirurgiya, 1972, no. 7, pp. 70–73.

Clinical Significance of Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiography, in: Congress of Surgeons of Israel: Abstracts, Be’er Sheva, 1983, p. 108.