Edith Neumann was born in
Vienna,
Austria, on June 29, 1902, to lawyer and art collector Alfred Spitzer and wife Hermine. She studied chemistry and physics at the
University of Vienna and received her doctorate in 1927. At the time of her attendance, she was the only woman studying there. In 1924, Neumann converted to Christianity, and soon after in 1925, got engaged to Frederick Neumann, also a Christian convert. The two got married in 1927. After spending two years in
Zagreb,
Yugoslavia, they returned to Vienna in 1936. They did not stay long however, for they moved around Europe going to places through the Danube to places such as northern Italy, Paris, and finally London, fearing Frederick's arrest following the rise of Hitler. In 1939, she and her husband moved to
Haifa, for missionary work. In 1948, the Neumann's moved to the United States and settled in New York. Neumann first worked as a bacteriologist at the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn. Following that, she worked at
Maimonides Hospital as a microbiologist, where she stayed for 20 years. After her husband's death in 1967, Neumann moved to Manhattan and became a medical director at the Jetti Katz Clinical Laboratory, where she stayed until her retirement at the age of 80. Neumann died in New York City on June 29, 2002. ==References==