Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer
Westheimer in 1988
Born	Karola Ruth Siegel (1928-06-04)June 4, 1928 Wiesenfeld, Bavaria, Germany
Died	July 12, 2024(2024-07-12) (aged 96) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Paramus, New Jersey, U.S.
Other names	Ruth K. Siegel, Ruth K. Westheimer, Dr. Ruth
Citizenship	German Reich (1928–1935) United States (1965–2024) Germany (2007–2024)
Education	University of Paris (BA) The New School (MA) Columbia University (EdD) Cornell University
Occupations	Sex therapist talk show host author academic
Years active	1959–2024
Height	4 ft 7 in (140 cm)
Board member of	Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Spouses	David Bar-Haim ​ ​ (m. 1950; div. 1955)​ Dan Bommer ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1957)​ Manfred Westheimer ​ ​ (m. 1961; died 1997)​
Children	2, including Joel Westheimer
Awards	Radio Hall of Fame Magnus Hirschfeld Medal Ellis Island Medal of Honor Leo Baeck Medal Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Military career
Allegiance	Israel
Service/branch	Haganah
Years of service	1946–1949
Battles/wars	1948 Arab–Israeli War
Website	drruth.com

Karola Ruth Westheimer (née Siegel; June 4, 1928 – July 12, 2024), better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host.

Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the 10-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety while they remained behind because of her elderly grandmother.^[1] Both were killed in concentration camps. After World War II, she emigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. At 4 feet 7 inches (140 cm) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper.^[2] On her 20th birthday, she was wounded in action by an exploding shell during mortar fire on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Israeli War of Independence, and almost lost both feet.

Two years later, Westheimer moved to Paris, France, where she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. Immigrating to the United States in 1956, she worked as a maid to put herself through graduate school, earned a Master of Arts in sociology from The New School in 1959, and earned a doctorate at age 42 from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1970. Over the next decade, she taught at a number of universities and had a private sex therapy practice.

Westheimer's media career began in 1980 with the radio call-in show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. In 1983 it was the top-rated radio show in the country's largest radio market. She then launched a television show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted two million viewers a week. She became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but also warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase: "Get some". In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom."^[3][4] She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos. She was the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.

The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr. Ruth, written by Mark St. Germain, is about Westheimer's life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr. Ruth, directed by Ryan White. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.