Dr. Ruth Westheimer created her own career and niche business when sex therapy discussions in public were a taboo subject. This was especially true with a woman who was over 50 years old and speaking about it in public, on the radio. She made immense waves with Sexually Speaking in 1980 upon its release and continued on air to discuss sex issues for 10 years. By 1983 she had a top-rated radio show in a huge market, NYC, for the country. Her over-the-airwaves success led to her starting her own TV show, The Dr. Ruth Show, which opened her to a different medium that took further altitudinal flight in the 1980s. TV talk shows were the thing to watch whether it was Oprah, Donahue, Arsenio, Carson or Letterman. She still stood out even with the market being so crowded with more options than ever like Cavett, Griffin, King, Raphael and Riveria taking up more of the airwaves. She made a strong career out of a life of tragedy, challenges and yes, military service. What else would we write about?
Westheimer was Jewish and German-born and was sent away from Nazi Germany by her parents to Switzerland for school. She was raised in the Orthodox Jewish faith, grounded in religious attendance to the synagogues. Her parents unfortunately did not survive the concentration camps and were killed by the Nazis. She watched as her father was arrested by the Gestapo and was sent to Switzerland in early 1939 on the Kindertransport, which served as a rescue train for Jewish children. Westheimer lived at an orphanage with fellow Jewish children and by the war’s end, almost all of the kids were orphans as their parents had died at the hand of the Nazis. She stayed there after the war for six years and found inventive ways to learn as the local school did not allow female students. A fellow orphan boy and friend brought her his books to read at night.
Westheimer’s father died at Auschwitz, her mother died during the Holocaust without exact detail, and all of her relatives were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Once the war ended, she moved to Mandatory Palestine when she was 16 years old. She lived in many places in the country such as Kibbutz Ramat David, Moshav Nahala and Kibbutz Yagur. She finally ended up in Jerusalem and joined the Haganah Jewish Zionist organization which was the underground paramilitary predecessor to the Israeli Defense Forces. Her initial training was as a scout and a sniper because of her short stature. She says she did not kill anyone and that she did learn combat skills. Westheimer calls herself “an ace sniper,” and that she could, “…assemble a rifle in the dark.” At 90 years old she showed she could still put together a Sten gun without the need of sight.
Westheimer was seriously wounded by a mortar shell during an attack on Jerusalem in the 1947-1949 Palestine War. She survived while two other young women next to her were killed. She suffered from temporary paralysis and injuries to both feet. Once recovered she moved to France in 1950 to study psychology at the University of Paris. She earned her undergraduate degree without having attended or graduated high school. Westheimer then moved to the US in 1956 to Washington Heights, Manhattan. She worked as a maid at 28 years old to earn a living and pay for her graduate school. She graduated from The New School in 1959 with an MA in sociology. She worked and took classes as a single mother and by 1965 became a naturalized citizen in the United States. By 1970, she had earned her Doctor of Education from Columbia University with a degree in Family-Life Studies.
Post-doctoral degree, she worked for Planned Parenthood in Harlem for a brief period and moved on to work as a researcher at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. During this period she taught at many different schools such as Yale, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Adelphi, Brooklyn College, Lehman College, West Point and many local NYC hospitals. She had a private practice as well that focused on the treatment of sex therapy patients. These experiences led to her career in media as the go-to sex therapy guru. She revolutionized people talking about sex and dealing with their issues openly. Westheimer educated the public on many key sexuality matters such as STDs, abortion, contraception, relationships and AIDS.
Her show may have only started in 1980, but by 1981 she had a quarter of a million loyal listeners every week. There was no known promotional work, so her audience grew by word of mouth. Westheimer’s show was extended from its initial time of 15 minutes to 60 minutes on Sunday nights. The show was broadcast by 90 more stations outside of WYNY, its home station, and by 1982 she had the top-rated show on WYNY. The show continued to gain momentum and in 1984 it was picked up by NBC Radio for syndication nationwide. At her peak, the show brought in 450,000 listeners and helped make Westheimer a star. This led to her TV show, casting in a feature, Une Femme ou Deux, that starred Gerard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver, a videogame, being a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Joan Rivers Show, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and her appearances on the covers of People and TV Guide.
Westheimer made a huge splash in the 1980s which rolled on in the 1990s. She hosted a talk show on Israeli Channel 2 with Israeli TV host Arad Nir called Min Tochnit similar to her US show Sexually Speaking. A second game, this time for the computer on CD-ROM came out called Dr. Ruth’s Encyclopedia of Sex and wrote a column that was distributed across the globe for King Features Syndicate. She took up more acting roles in such shows as Quantum Leap, One Life to Live and a pilot called Dr. Ruth’s House. Westheimer appeared on such shows as The Arsenio Hall Show, The Howard Stern Show, The Daily Show and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. In the 90s she made the leap into commercials for huge brands such as Pepsi, Clairol Herbal Essences and Honda as well.
By the 2000s Westheimer had hit legendary status and become a long-lasting pop culture icon. She broke into the music industry by appearing with singer Tom Chapin’s song Two Kinds of Seagulls in a duet with Chapin. PBS had her cast as Dr. Ruth Wordheimer in Between the Lions where she helped readers surmount the challenges with long words. Hollywood Squares had her on 10 times in the early to mid 2000s as a guest and she appeared Live with Regis and Kelly. Her knowledge and force of personality continued through the 2010s with appearances on The Nate Berkus Show, The Doctors, Rachael Ray and The Today Show. A one-woman play titled, Becoming Dr. Ruth, opened Off Broadway in 2013 and the Ask Dr. Ruth documentary appeared on Hulu in 2019. The documentary was nominated and won different awards including the 4th Critics’ Choice Documentary Award. In 2019 she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with Seth Myers, The View, The Today Show and Strahan, Sara and Keke. Of note, Westheimer figured out social media as well and had 100,000 followers on Twitter.
Her list of accolades is impressive and includes being added to the Jewish Woman of Achievement in New York, the Mayor’s Liberty Award from NYC, the Bronx Walk of Fame, the Radio Hall of Fame, the German-American Hall of Fame and the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. She has an impressive history, resume and influential impact on society which still exists today. Westheimer achieved great things in her life and career post-survival of World War II and her service in the predecessor to the Israeli Defense Forces. Dr. Ruth passed away July 12, 2024 at the age of 96.