# Dr. Ruth has died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152 "2024-07-13T15:12:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/21 "2024-07-14T07:21:47Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > She was… Sadly, paywalled. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/22 "2024-07-14T13:18:21Z")
The amazingly productive [Matthew Dicks](https://matthewdicks.com/) posted his recollections of meeting her in a TEDx green room. [https://matthewdicks.com/rip-dr-ruth/](https://matthewdicks.com/rip-dr-ruth/) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/23 "2024-07-14T13:52:16Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Sadly, paywalled. Sorry. Below is the cite where I found that link, and it gives details of her early life, including her service in combat. > [@](#): > > Before the war [WWII] broke out, 10-year-old Karola Ruth Siegel, the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish couple, was shipped to Switzerland for her own safety. Her father had been sent to the Dachau concentration camp after the infamous _Kristallnacht_ pogrom of 1938. While she was living in an orphanage there, her mother disappeared and her father was killed at Auschwitz. > > When the war ended, Karola moved to Palestine and began using her middle name. While living in Jerusalem in 1948, [she joined the Haganah](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/10/opinion/women-know-how-to-fight.html), which was in the middle of the insurgency. The group trained her to be a scout and sniper, because she stood [just over 4½ feet tall](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/opinion/etc-westheimer.html). She joined just in time to serve in the Israeli War of Independence, which began that same year. > > Almost as soon as Britain announced its complete withdrawal from Palestine, Arabs and Jews began fighting for control of the region. Arab forces from Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Transjordan (now Jordan) invaded Palestine, reinforced Arab areas and attacked Jewish ones. In response, the new Israeli government merged the paramilitary groups into the Israel Defense Forces and counterattacked. > > The future Dr. Ruth was stationed in Jerusalem in June 1948. The Jordanians had cut off supplies to the city, where some of the heaviest fighting of the war was taking place. House-to-house fighting raged through the quarters of the city as the Arabs launched an estimated 10,000 artillery and mortar shells per day at the Israelis. > > One of these mortars hit her unit’s barracks, killing two and[seriously wounding Ruth](https://www.pressreader.com/israel/jerusalem-post-magazine/20180629/282578788781850) before she ever fired a round of her own. She was temporarily paralyzed and nearly lost both feet. As Israel began to turn the tide and win its war for survival, the future Dr. Ruth was relearning how to walk. > > Despite not having a formal high school education due to the Holocaust, Ruth still studied early childhood education in Israel. After the 1948 war, she moved to France to study psychology at the Sorbonne, where she finished her undergraduate degree. Before long, she was teaching there. > > In 1956, she immigrated to New York City, where she worked as a maid while she earned a master’s degree in sociology from the New School. She later married Manfred Westheimer, earned her doctorate and trained as a sex therapist. In 1980, her call-in radio show, “Sexually Speaking,” debuted on the NYC radio station WYNY-FM. [https://www.military.com/history/worlds-foremost-sex-therapist-holocaust-survivor-and-former-sniper.html?amp](https://www.military.com/history/worlds-foremost-sex-therapist-holocaust-survivor-and-former-sniper.html?amp) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/24 "2024-07-14T17:27:51Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > and it gives details of her early life, including her service in combat. Thank you for providing that, it was very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/25 "2024-07-15T00:00:46Z")
Dr. Ruth was wonderfully refreshing and candid about sexual relationships. I should find time to listen to her old shows. RIP ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/26 "2024-07-15T00:05:51Z")
In her frankness about sexual matters, she reminded me of Mrs B-----, my ninth grade biology teacher. Part of the course was sexual education and she was similarly frank about everything, even the weird questions we threw at her. I would hope that anyone teaching the matter would be so. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2024, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152/27 "2024-08-22T06:54:58Z")
I just finished watching this episode on game TV: [“Hollywood Squares” Episode dated 9 February 2004 (TV Episode 2004) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0603278/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-ruth-has-died/1004152.md?page=1)