Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the sexologist known as "Dr. Ruth," who became the most famous sex counselor in the world, passed away last Friday at her home in Manhattan at the age of 96. She is survived by her son, Joel, her daughter, Miriam, and four grandchildren.
Dr. Westheimer was born Carola Ruth Siegel in Wiesenfeld, Germany, on June 4, 1928, the only child of Orthodox parents Julius and Irma Siegel. Her father was a wholesaler, and together with her parents and grandmother, she lived a comfortable and somewhat protected life from the dangerous reality in Germany at that time.
The situation changed when the Nazis took her father in 1938. Her mother and grandmother managed to bring her to a Jewish orphanage in the Swiss Alps for children whose parents had perished in the Holocaust, where she was educated until the eighth grade.
Until 1941, she continued to receive letters from her family, but they suddenly stopped. After the war, she discovered that her parents had been taken by the Gestapo and murdered in Auschwitz. Westheimer decided to immigrate to Israel.
She joined the Einot kibbutz in Ramat David, where she changed her name from Carola to Ruth. After about two years, despite being only 1.39 meters tall, she enlisted in the Haganah and trained as a sniper. However, she was later wounded by a bomb during the War of Independence.
In 1950, she left Israel to study psychology at the Sorbonne University in France and continued teaching there. In 1956, she continued her studies at Columbia University in the US, where she earned a master's degree in sociology and later a doctorate in education. She completed her postdoctoral work on human sexuality at the New York University Medical Center under Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan, a pioneer in sex therapy.
In 1980, she began broadcasting her first sex advice show, "Sexually Speaking," for $25 a week. Despite the low pay, it was her entry ticket into the world of sex therapy, which turned her into a brand name. Soon, she was a guest on radio and television shows, gave lectures, had her own TV shows, published articles, and was even mentioned in numerous films.
In 2019, a documentary about her, titled "Ask Dr. Ruth," aired, depicting her journey to becoming a famous sex therapist. Alongside her media activities, she continued to run a successful sex therapy clinic in New York.
Israel always had a special place in her heart
Despite her American and international success, Israel always held a special place in her heart. She frequently visited Israel and even co-hosted a sex advice show called "Sex Program" with presenter Arad Nir in the early days of Channel 2.
She was fluent in four languages: German, her mother tongue; French, acquired during her studies in France; Hebrew, learned after immigrating to Israel; and English, which she mastered upon arriving in the USA.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer was known for her direct and humorous statements about sexuality and relationships, such as "Get some" where she enthusiastically encouraged enjoying sex, "Sex is not a spectator sport, you need to participate in it," emphasizing the importance of involvement in sexual activity, "There is no such thing as a perfect man or woman, only the combination is perfect" where she clarified her belief that a successful relationship depends on the compatibility between partners, and "A lesson learned with humor is a lesson retained" reflecting her belief in humor as an educational tool.
Her appearances were always enthusiastic, and her high-pitched voice, German-American accent, wisdom and rich experience, short stature, and open discussion about sex at an older age captured viewers for decades. Westheimer was married three times and, as mentioned, had two children and four grandchildren.