Ruth Westheimer

NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 24, 2017: Westheimer attends ‘As You Are’ New York Premiere at Village East Cinema, excelentphoto

Birth Name: Karola Ruth Siegel

Date of Birth: June 4, 1928

Place of Birth: Wiesenfeld (now Karlstadt am Main), Bavaria, Germany

Date of Death: July 12, 2024

Place of Death: Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.

Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish

Ruth Westheimer, or Dr. Ruth, was an American sex therapist, talk show host, singer, author, and academic. A major cultural figure, she was the host of the radio show Sexually Speaking, from 1980 to 1990, and of the television The Dr. Ruth Show, among many others, for decades. She also had a private practice, taught at universities, appeared in commercials, Playboy videos, and the film Une Femme ou Deux, and was the subject of the documentary Ask Dr. Ruth. Her tag phrase was “Get some.” She was also known as Ruth K. Siegel and Ruth K. Westheimer. She was 4′7″.

Ruth was the daughter of Irma (Hanauer) and Julius Arnold Siegel, a notions wholesaler. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for her father’s family. Her father was born in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen. Her mother was born in Wiesenfeld, Bavaria. Her parents were Orthodox Jews. She was partly raised in Frankfurt.

Her father was taken away by the Nazis after Kristallnacht, in November 1938. Ruth was subsequently sent on the Kindertransport, the Jewish children’s transport, to Switzerland in January 1939, where she lived in an orphanage until the end of the war. Ruth’s parents were murdered in the Holocaust, her father in Auschwitz, in Poland, in 1942. Three of her grandparents were also murdered. Her maternal grandparents were killed in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechia, in 1943.

In 1945, at sixteen, she moved to the British Mandate for Palestine, where she lived on Kibbutz Ramat David, Moshav Nahalal, and Kibbutz Yagur, before moving to Jerusalem in 1948. She fought in the Haganah underground paramilitary organization, where she was trained as a scout and sniper, and was injured in the Israeli War of Independence. In 1950, Ruth moved to Paris, France; and in 1956 to the U.S., where she settled in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and initially worked as a maid. She became a U.S. citizen in 1965, and regained her German citizenship in 2007.

Ruth was married to Manfred Westheimer, a German Jewish refugee, from Karlsruhe, until his death. She had two children, including citizenship education academic Joel Westheimer. She spoke English, German, French, and Hebrew.

Ruth’s paternal grandfather was Siegmund Samuel Siegel (the son of Abraham Siegel and Therese Suesser/Süsser).

Ruth’s paternal grandmother was Selma Gutmann (the daughter of Jesaias Gutmann and Caroline Suesser/Süsser). Selma was born in Karbach, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany.

Ruth’s maternal grandfather was Moses Hanauer (the son of Benedict Hanauer and Friederike Ricka Schloss). Moses was born in Weisenfeld, Bavaria, Germany. Benedict was the son of Abraham Moses/Hanauer and Fanny Feitel/Faile Bergmann. Friederike was the daughter of Loew/Löw Schloss/Schloß and Mörlein Hanauer. Ruth’s great-grandparents Benedict and Friederike were first cousins.

Ruth’s maternal grandmother was Pauline Steinheimer (the daughter of Manasse Steinheimer and Esther Köhler). Pauline was born in Niederwerrn, Bavaria, Germany.

Source: Genealogy of Ruth Westheimer – https://www.geni.com