Dr. Ruth, Renowned Sex Therapist And Author, Dead At 96

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, better known simply as Dr. Ruth, the renowned sex therapist and author, has died at age 96, according to The Washington Post. Pierre Lehu, her publicist and co-author, announced the sad news, but no cause of death was provided.

Westheimer went by a number of different names and titles throughout her lifetime. On her birth certificate, you'll find the name Karola Ruth Siegel. Upon emigrating to then-Palestine at the end of World War II, however, she was told her first name was "too German," so she began going by Ruth K. She kept her middle initial intact, she told HistoryNet, because "if somebody in my family survived, they would find me because they knew that the 'K' stood for Karola." She later tacked on the "Westheimer" surname upon marrying her late husband, Manfred, in 1961.

However, most of us knew the spunky and outspoken sexspert as "Dr. Ruth" — a short and honorable title to match a short and honorable woman. Standing a mere 4 feet 7 inches tall, she seldom had to literally look down on people. However, the phrase rings true even in the figurative sense. Dr. Ruth devoted the better part of her life to answering our every question about sex. Her penchant for providing frank, informed, and downright funny advice on the most taboo of topics earned her one last title: "America's sex therapist."

Born to an Orthodox Jewish couple in 1928, Ruth Westheimer grew up in a loving home in Frankfurt, Germany, according to The Times of Israel. But when the Nazis took power, any semblance of a carefree childhood came to an abrupt end. A week after Kristallnacht — which translates to "The Night of Broken Glass" — the SS arrested her father and sent him away to a labor camp. The first chance he got he sent a postcard home instructing his family to flee from their home as anti-Semitism was becoming increasingly violent. A then-10-year-old Westheimer escaped to a school-turned-orphanage for Jewish refugees in Switzerland where she worked as a maid. Sadly, she never saw her family again and believes they were killed in Auschwitz.

According to Naples Daily News, when she spoke at the annual fundraising dinner of Naples' Holocaust Museum in 2020, Dr. Ruth told attendees she doesn't place herself in the same camp as other Holocaust survivors, saying, "I don't want to be called a survivor of the Holocaust ... I want to be called an orphan of the Holocaust." She told HistoryNet her parents gave her life two times over: "Once when I was born, and once when I was forced to go to Switzerland."

When the war finally came to a close, Dr. Ruth Westheimer emigrated to Israel to become a sniper and scout for the Jewish underground movement known as Haganah. On her 20th birthday, she was badly wounded after a bomb exploded outside the kibbutz where she lived. She recovered and found love, later moving to Paris with her husband to study psychology at the Sorbonne. She crossed continents to continue her education in New York City.

In the late 1960s, Dr. Ruth nailed down a job at a Planned Parenthood in Harlem. The conversations and work she experienced there inspired her to pursue a doctorate degree in family and sex counseling. One of her talks on the need for sex education programming caught the attention of a manager at a local radio station, who offered Dr. Ruth a gig hosting a show called "Sexually Speaking," which aired Sunday nights at midnight and became an instant success. In 1984, the show became syndicated nationally and Dr. Ruth's career skyrocketed. She soon found herself penning a column in Playgirl magazine, starring in a cable TV series, launching a website, and authoring several different books. In 2019, she was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, per their press release. 

Dr. Ruth remained active in her career up until her final days, making sure to keep her countless followers updated with regular posts on social media. We remember her as a revolutionary survivor who's groundbreaking work forever shattered deep-rooted taboos.