Dr. Ruth speaking on October 4, 2007 at Brown University

Ruth Westheimer, Ed.D (born Karola Ruth Siegel on June 4, 1928) is an American sex therapist and author. She is best known as Dr. Ruth. is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... The Doctor of Education degree (Ed. ... is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sex therapy is the treatment of sexual dysfunction, such as non-consumation, premature ejaculation or erectile dysfunction, problems commonly caused by stress, tiredness and other environmental and relationship factors. ... For other uses, see Author (disambiguation). ...

Biography

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Westheimer was born in Frankfurt, Germany, to a Jewish family. In 1939 she was sent to Switzerland.^[1] In 1945, Westheimer learned that her parents had perished in the Holocaust, most likely at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Ruth decided to immigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine where she joined the Haganah in Jerusalem. Despite her diminutive height of 4 feet 7 inches, she was trained as a scout and sharpshooter.^[1] Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and it was several months before she was able to walk again.^[2] Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...   (German: , English: American English: ) is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a mid-2007 population of 663,567. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... “Shoah” redirects here. ... Auschwitz (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) was the largest of the Nazi German concentration camps. ... Flag The approximate borders of the British Mandate circa 1922. ... The Haganah (Hebrew: Defense, ×”×’× ×”) was a Zionist para-military organization in Palestine during the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... Combatants  Israel Haganah Irgun Lehi Palmach Foreign Volunteers Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,  Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen[2], Holy War Army, Arab Liberation Army Commanders Yaakov Dori, Yigael Yadin John Bagot Glubb, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, Hasan Salama, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi Strength  Israel: 29,677 initially...

In 1950, she moved to France, where she studied and taught psychology at the University of Paris. In 1956, she emigrated to the Washington Heights, New York City, where she earned a master's in sociology and an Ed.D. from New School for Social Research. She completed post-doctoral work in human sexuality at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She is multilingual, speaking English, German, French and Hebrew. The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: ) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganised as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... Washington Heights seen from the west tower of the George Washington Bridge. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the systematic and scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social action, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... The Doctor of Education degree (Ed. ... New School University is an institute of higher learning in New York City. ... New York-Presbyterian Hospital is a prominent university hospital in New York City, composed of two medical centers, Columbia University Medical Center and the Cornell University Weill Medical Center. ...

In 1980 WYNY FM was NBC Radio's New York City owned and operated station. A struggling Adult Contemporary station which had recently gone through a make over in an attempt to build an audience. Part of this rebuild was adding specialized talk shows to the evening and weekend hours. Maurice Tunick was recruited from New York's leading talk station, WOR where he was talk show producer. As WYNY's Program Coordinator he was responsible for developing new talk shows. WYNY was the call letters of radio stations on three different FM frequencies in or around New York City. ... The 1986 Peacock logo, designed by Chermayeff & Geismar. ... WOR is the callsign currently used by one broadcaster in New York, New York, and formerly used by two others: WOR AM WOR-FM is now WRKS-FM WOR-TV is now WWOR-TV This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...

Betty Elam was WYNY's Community Affairs Manager. Her job was to work closely with community groups and the station's public affairs programming. Betty was one of dozens of radio station Community Affairs managers attending the NYMRAD ascertainment day which had Dr. Westheimer as a speaker, and came back raving about her.

Betty was taken in by Dr. Ruth's passion, information, sense of humor and personality and suggested that WYNY ought to do something with her. Dr. Ruth was invited to be a guest on a taped Sunday morning public affairs program twice. Following that, WYNY's General Manager, Dan Griffin suggested Maurice find a way to develop a public affairs show for her.

Maurice was given Sunday night at midnight for 15 minutes. Being a novice in radio, Ruth thought it would be a good idea to have guests covering urology, neurology, gynecology, etc. — all areas which could have an effect on sex. While that would be important, Tunick thought a better show would be to not have guests at all but to have Ruth answer listeners questions directly. NBC was reluctant to allow live phone calls for a sex advice show, which was considered very risqué in the early 1980s, but Tunick suggested soliciting questions via mail a way for her to give advice. By people submitting their questions, Ruth could control the questions and read them on the air with her answers. Typically Ruth would begin each question with, "I have a letter from a listener who asks..." This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. ... The shamefulness associated with the examination of female genitalia has long inhibited the science of gynaecology. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The show, Sexually Speaking, was taped in an NBC Radio studio at 30 Rockefeller Center, NBC's radio and TV headquarters on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. for airing on Sunday nights at midnight. All NBC studios at 30 Rock were accessible from other studios and many offices around the building. You could tune in any studio and hear what was being aired or recorded. A couple of weeks into recording, Ruth's show had a real buzz throughout the building. It was soon reported that work was stopping in many places in the building on Thursdays at 11 as people were gathering to hear this "cross between Henry Kissinger and Minnie Mouse," as the Wall Street Journal would later describe her. Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ... Minnie redirects here. ... The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with an average daily circulation of 1,800,607 (2002). ...

Just two months after being turned down for a live show it was decided that she could go live for an hour taking phone calls (with a delay). Within a year Dr. Ruth had a larger audience on Sunday night at midnight on this struggling New York station than many NY stations had in morning drive.

Dr. Ruth became nationally known after several appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" in the early 1980's.^[3]

Less than two years from the ascertainment day, Dr. Ruth became a household name and was being heard on radio stations across the country.

Her pioneering TV show, also called Sexually Speaking, first aired in 1982 as a 15-minute taped show on Lifetime Cable. It has since increased in popularity and has been nationally syndicated, as has her radio show. She is known to be candid and funny, but respectful. Lifetime Television is an American television network devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. ...

In recent years, she has made regular appearances on the PBS Television children's show Between the Lions as "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer" in a parody of her therapist role, in which she helps anxious readers and spellers overcome their fear of long words. Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Between the Lions is a PBS childrens puppet show designed to promote reading. ...

Westheimer has written several books on human sexuality including Dr. Ruth's Encyclopedia of Sex and Sex ...for Dummies. She has taught as lecturer and professor at Princeton University and New York University and led a recent sex seminar at Yale University. Cover of HTML 4 for Dummies. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ... Yale redirects here. ...

She has been married three times. Her third marriage, to Manfred Westheimer, lasted until his death in 1997. She has two children, Miriam and Joel, and several grandchildren.

Popular culture

• The notably short-statured and German-accented Dr. Westheimer has been occasionally parodied by Mary Gross during her tenure at Saturday Night Live. Gross would be a guest on the News segment, playing Westheimer with a thick accent, and sitting behind the desk where only her head and occasionally her raised arms showed.
• Westheimer served as a panelist on revivals of television game shows To Tell the Truth (1990) and Hollywood Squares (1998).
• Westheimer guest-starred as herself on an episode of Quantum Leap, as the person who "leaped" and switched places with the program's time-travelling main character. She was the only celebrity guest star on Quantum Leap to have “Leaped” in the series.
• Westheimer made many appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien during the 1990s as one of Conan's many characters that also included Mr. T, Abe Vigoda, Carl "Oldy" Olsen, Al Roker, NBC Announcer Joel Goddard, The Liberal-Bias Ski-Reporter, Loser at the Beach, Nipple-Hair Don King, Pimpbot 5000, the Masturbating Bear, and of course Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. In one of Dr. Ruth's most notable appearances, she attempted to re-create the World Series by playing a pretend game of baseball with several of the aforementioned characters.
• She appears as herself on David Endochrine's show in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. In it she is killed by the Joker; ironically by his poisoned-lipstick kiss.
• Dr. Ruth is mentioned in Shania Twain's song "I'm Holdin' on to Love (to Save My Life)".
• Dr. Ruth appeared on an afternoon newscast of WCBS-TV in summer of 2006.
• Hip Hip artist Project Pat claims to be "the ghetto Dr. Ruth" in his song "What Money Do" featured on his album "Crook by Da Book"
• Dr. Ruth was portrayed by Greg Proops, on an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway? during the popular sketch "Let's Make a Date"
• Dr. Ruth appears on the PBS Kids show Between the Lions as Dr. Ruth Wordheimer.

Mary Gross (born March 25, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American comedian and actress best known for her four-year stint on Saturday Night Live from 1981 to 1985. ... This article is about the American television series. ... To Tell the Truth is also the title of Charles Robert Jenkins autobiography To Tell the Truth is an American television game show created by Bob Stewart[1] and produced by Goodson-Todman Productions that has been aired intermittently in various formats since 1956, hosted by various television personalities. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about a television series. ... Late Night with Conan OBrien is an Emmy Award-winning American late night talk show that is syndicated worldwide. ... Abe Vigoda (born Abraham Charles Vigodah on February 24, 1921) is an American movie and television actor who bears a striking resemblance to professional poker player Gus Hansen. ... Best of Triumph DVD Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog is a puppet created and performed by Robert Smigel premiering in 1997 on NBCs Late Night with Conan OBrien. ... David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.) is an award-winning American comedian, late night talk show host, television producer, philanthropist, and IRL IndyCar Series car owner. ... The premiere issue of the series Spoiler warning: The Dark Knight Returns (known as DKR by fans) is a superhero comic book story published by DC Comics between 1985 and 1986, starring Batman. ... Shania Twain, IPA: OC (born Eilleen Regina Edwards, August 28, 1965, Windsor, Ontario) is a Canadian singer and songwriter in the country and pop music genres. ... Im Holdin on to Love (to Save My Life) was the twelfth and final single released from Shania Twains 1997 album Come on Over. ... WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. ... Gregory Everett Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor and stand-up comedian, and works largely in Europe as a comic and improviser. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes shortened to Whose Line? or abbreviated as WLIIA?) is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. ... Between the Lions is a PBS childrens puppet show designed to promote reading. ...

References

External links

• Dr. Ruth's website
• Dr. Ruth Westheimer at the Internet Movie Database
• German American Heritage Biography
• Ruth Westheimers's Motivational Commencement Speech