Ruth Westheimer, the Iconic Dr. Ruth, Passes Away at 96
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Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive yet dynamic sex therapist known as Dr. Ruth, passed away at her Manhattan home at the age of 96. Her death was confirmed by her spokesman, Pierre Lehu.
Dr. Ruth shot to fame in 1980 with her radio show “Sexually Speaking” on New York's WYNY. Despite starting as a modest 15-minute segment airing after midnight, it quickly grew in popularity, turning her into a national media celebrity and business mogul. By the mid-1980s, she hosted syndicated live call-in shows on radio and TV, wrote a column for Playgirl magazine, and published numerous guidebooks on sexuality. She even appeared in commercials and the 1985 French film “One Woman or Two” alongside Gérard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver.
Dr. Ruth’s candid approach to discussing sex was revolutionary. She brought sex education to mainstream media, breaking taboos with her straightforward and humorous style. Her ability to address topics ranging from restoring marital romance to more niche sexual practices made her a household name. The Wall Street Journal once described her unique delivery as “something like a cross between Henry Kissinger and a canary.”
Born Karola Ruth Siegel in Germany in 1928, Dr. Ruth’s early life was marked by tragedy. After her father was taken by the Nazis, she was sent to a Swiss school, never to see her family again. They were presumed murdered at Auschwitz. After the war, she moved to Palestine, where she trained as a sniper for the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization. Despite these hardships, she pursued education passionately, eventually earning a doctorate from Columbia University and training with pioneering sex therapist Helen Singer Kaplan.
Dr. Ruth’s personal life was equally eventful. She experienced two unsuccessful marriages before finding lasting love with Manfred Westheimer, a telecommunications engineer. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1997. She is survived by her two children, Joel and Miriam, and four grandchildren.
Even as her popularity waned in the 1990s, Dr. Ruth continued to lecture, make TV appearances, and maintain a private practice. In 2019, she was the subject of the documentary “Ask Dr. Ruth,” which chronicled her journey to becoming America’s most famous sex therapist.
In November 2023, she was named New York State’s first honorary “ambassador to loneliness,” a role she proposed to help address social isolation. “I don’t want to be known only as a sex therapist,” she said. “I want to be known as a therapist.”
Dr. Ruth’s legacy includes more than two dozen books on sexuality and a memoir, “Musically Speaking: A Life Through Song.” Despite the many losses and dislocations she endured early in life, she maintained an infectious joie de vivre, which she attributed to the warmth of her early childhood and her love for music.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s contributions to sex education and her groundbreaking work in media will be remembered for generations.
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Source: The NewYork times