Elfin sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 98, died in New York on July 12. The German-born Karola Ruth Siegel lost her family in World War II (she was saved by being sent to Switzerland in 1939); she settled in the US in 1956 (Manfred Westheimer was her third husband). “Dr. Ruth,” a human sexuality doctoral grad from New York-Presbyterian Hospital, became a media star in the 1980s for her New York-based call-in show. Known for her humor, straight talk and German granny-like giggle, she moved to TV in 1982 and authored many books and appeared on countless TV shows. She told the NY Times on her 90th birthday that “I’m the same. I’m old-fashioned. I’m still talking about relationships. I’m still saying ‘be careful.’ Young people don’t see anybody die nowadays, but I say the same to them. They think they can have one-night stands.”
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She wasn’t “German born who lost her family in World War II”. She was Jewish whose family perished in the Holocaust. Her Judaism and the Holocaust was central to her identity and it would be shameful to erase that.
She was really something; she survived a lot and always kept her good humor