Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer was born Karola Ruth Siegel on June 4, 1928 in Wiesenfeld (now part of Karlstadt am Main), Germany.

Ruth was the only Child of Orthodox Jews, Irma (née Hanauer), a Housekeeper, and Julius Siegel, a Notions Wholesaler.

When she was 1 year old the Family moved to Frankfurt (am Main) with her Parents and Grandmother.

Ruth’s Father regularly took her to the Synagogue in the Nordend District of Frankfurt.

In November 1938 the Nazis took her Father to the Dachau Concentration Camp outside Munich shortly after Kristallnacht.

Kristallnacht, also known as “The Night of Broken Glass” was a Pogrom where the Germans destroyed 267 Synagogues, damaged another 1,400 Synagogues and Jewish Cemeteries, 7,000 Jewish Shops, 29 Jewish Department Stores and arrested 30,000 Jews (sending them to the Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camps) throughout Germany, Austria and German-Occupied Sudetenland.

In January 1938, 10 year old, Ruth left Frankfurt, Germany and went with 300 other Jewish Children to Heiden, Switzerland on the Kindertransport.

From 1938-1939) the Kindertransport tried to save 10,000 Jewish Boys and Girls from Germany, Austria and German-Occupied Czechoslovakia by sending them to the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Sweden and Switzerland.

Germany later Occupied: Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France and killed many of the Jews there.

In Heiden she was not allowed to go to the Local School because she was a Girl. A Fellow Kindertransport Jewish Boy would bring her Textbooks from School and she would read them at night in secret.

She stayed at the Heiden Orphanage for 6 years until World War 2 ended in 1945.

Ruth was orphaned when her Father was murdered at the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland in 1942. Her Mother’s fate is not known (Ruth wrote Letters to her Mother until 1941.)

Ruth left Switzerland at 17 years old in September 1945 and emigrated to British-Mandated Palestine (Israel) where she lived and worked at the Kibbutz Ramat David and changed her Name from Karola to her Middle Name Ruth.

Ruth joined the Haganah Jewish Zionist Underground Paramilitary Organization (later, the Israel Defense Forces) in Jerusalem where she was trained as a Scout and a Sniper.

In 1948, on her 20th Birthday, Ruth was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during a mortar fire attack on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Palestine War; the explosion killed two Girls who were right next to her.

Ruth had Near-Fatal Injuries; was temporarily Paralyzed, almost lost both of her Feet, the top of one of her Feet was blown off, and it was several months of recuperating in a Hospital before she was able to walk again.

In 1950, at the age of 22, Ruth moved to France.

There she studied Psychology under Psychologist Jean Piaget at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne), and earned an Undergraduate Degree despite not having had a High School Education.

She then taught Psychology at the Sorbonne.

In 1956, at 28 years old and with a Daughter Ruth immigrated to the United States, settling in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

She worked as a Maid, initially for 75 cents an hour and later for $1 Dollar an hour (equal to $11.21 today) to put herself through Graduate School.

In 1959 Ruth earned an M.A. Degree in Sociology from The New School.

In 1965 Ruth became an American Citizen.

In 1970, at 42 years old, Ruth received a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Degree in Family-Life Studies from Teachers College at Columbia University.

She then trained as a Sex Therapist at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center/Cornell Medical School.

She went on to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Ruth continued to work there as an Adjunct Associate Professor for five years.

She also taught at Lehman College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, Adelphi University, Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, New York University, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medicine, and West Point.

In addition, she treated Sex Therapy Patients in a Private Practice, on East 73rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

In 1980 she started speaking on Radio and Television – helping People with their Sex and Health Questions and Problems.

By 1985, “The Dr. Ruth Show” received an Average of 3,000 Callers and 450,000 Viewers every single Episode.

Between 2001 and 2007, Ruth made regular appearances on the PBS Children's Television Series “Between the Lions” as "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer" in a spoof of her Therapist Role, in which she helps anxious Readers and Spellers overcome their fear of long words.

In 2019, she published her 45^th Book on Sex and Sexuality.

Ruth was an accomplished Ethnographer.

 Her studies in this field include the Ethiopian Jews, Papua New Guinea's Trobriand Islanders, and the Druze, a Sect originating from Shia Islam now residing in Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. The latter were the subject of her 2007 PBS Documentary “The Olive and the Tree: The Secret Strength of the Druze”, and a book of the same title.

Ruth was a Board Member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Lower Manhattan in New York City.

 She was also made a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, which is an honor for a Non-Physician.

In 2007 she regained her German Citizenship which the Nazis took from her in 1936 (keeping her American Citizenship.)

In October 2013 the One-Woman Play “Becoming Dr. Ruth”, opened Off Broadway at the Westside Theatre.

Actress Debra Jo Rupp played the role of Dr. Ruth. The play showcased the Sex Therapist's life from fleeing the Nazis in the Kindertransport and joining the Haganah in Jerusalem as a Scout and Sniper, to her struggles to succeed as a Single Mother coming to America.

In 2019, the Documentary “Ask Dr. Ruth” was in Theaters, and was made available on Hulu, as she approached her 90th birthday.

It won a 4th Critics' Choice Documentary Award in 2019 as "Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary."

Ruth was married three times, the first two times briefly.

She said each of her Marriages played an important role in her relationship advice, but after two divorces it was her third marriage, at age 32 to fellow Holocaust Survivor Manfred 'Fred' Westheimer, that was the "real marriage".  Fred, too, had escaped Nazi Germany.

She had two Children: Miriam Yael Westheimer, who lived in Israel for six years and later married Joel Henry Einleger, and Joel Westheimer, a Professor at the University of Ottawa, and four Grandchildren.

She spoke English, German, French, and Hebrew.

On July 12, 2024, Dr. Ruth Westheimer died at her home in Manhattan at 96 years old.