Joseph Bernard Borman was born in Krugersdorp, South Africa on 3 July 1929. He was the son of Zalman Borman and his wife Leah née Berman. Both his parents were in business and his sister, Hannah, eventually qualified as a physiotherapist. Educated at Krugersdorp High School, he then proceeded to study medicine at the University of Witwatersrand, qualifying MB, BCh in 1951. In 1953 he was a lecturer in the department of anatomy at Witwatersrand before travelling to the UK the following year to work at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and the Royal Cancer Hospital (RCH) in London. He stayed at the RCH until 1955 and was then appointed resident surgical officer at the Woolwich Memorial Hospital where he worked from 1956 to 1958. He passed the fellowship of the college in 1956. After some time in Israel, he went to the USA as a fellow in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he stayed from 1963 to 1964. By 1974 he was working in Jerusalem as chief of the cardiothoracic surgery unit at Hadassah University Hospital, as professor of surgery at the Hebrew University Medical School and director of the Cardiac Surgery Research Laboratory. After retirement in 1993, he worked at the Biker Cholim Hospital for ten years. From 1988 onwards he acted as a consultant to the Israeli Ministry of Health. He was a member of the International Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery and served as their president in 1994. Outside medicine he enjoyed reading, music, theatre and travel. A particular enthusiasm was collecting stamps relating to heart disease. He married Ruth Lichter, a teacher and writer, on 24 November 1957. They had three children: Margalit (born 1958) who became an expert in special education for children with learning difficulties, Eyal (born 1960) a restaurant owner and caterer and Alon (born 1961) an economist and manager in a tourism office. He died on 22 June 2016 aged 86.