45 Facts About Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer then launched a television show, The Dr Ruth Show, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week.

Ruth Westheimer became known for giving serious advice while being candid, but warm, cheerful, funny, and respectful, and for her tag phrase; "Get some".

Ruth Westheimer became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gerard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos.

The one-woman 2013 play Becoming Dr Ruth Westheimer, written by Mark St Germain, is about her life, as is the 2019 documentary, Ask Dr Ruth Westheimer, directed by Ryan White.

Ruth Westheimer has been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and awarded the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Leo Baeck Medal, the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ruth Westheimer was the only child of Orthodox Jews, Irma, a housekeeper, and Julius Siegel, a notions wholesaler and son of the family for whom Irma worked.

Ruth Westheimer was given an early grounding in Judaism by her father, who took her regularly to the synagogue in the Nordend district of Frankfurt, where they lived.

Ruth Westheimer arrived at an orphanage of a Jewish charity in Heiden, Switzerland, as one of 300 Jewish children, some as young as six years of age.

Ruth Westheimer, being a girl, was not allowed to take classes at the local school.

Ruth Westheimer's father was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.

Ruth Westheimer's mother was killed during the Holocaust, but there is no information about the specific circumstances of her killing.

Ruth Westheimer then moved to Jerusalem in 1948 to study early childhood education.

Ruth Westheimer joined the Haganah Jewish Zionist underground paramilitary organization in Jerusalem.

Ruth Westheimer had near-fatal injuries; she was temporarily paralyzed, almost lost both of her feet, the top of one of her feet was blown off, and it was several months of recuperating in a ward before she was able to walk again.

In 1950, at the age of 22 Ruth Westheimer moved to France.

In 1956, at 28 years of age and with a newborn daughter, Ruth Westheimer immigrated to the United States, settling in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

Ruth Westheimer worked as a maid, initially for 75 cents an hour and later for one dollar an hour, to put herself through graduate school.

Ruth Westheimer was a single mother, and an organization named Jewish Family Service paid for her daughter to stay with a foster family during the day, and then when her daughter was three years old at a German Jewish Orthodox nursery school, as Westheimer worked and went to classes at The New School.

Ruth Westheimer regained her German citizenship in 2007 through the German Citizenship Project that enabled descendants of Germans deprived of their citizenship during Nazi rule to reclaim their citizenship without losing the citizenship of their home country.

Ruth Westheimer went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Ruth Westheimer continued to work there as an adjunct associate professor for five years.

Ruth Westheimer became known for giving serious advice while being candid and funny, but warm, cheerful, and respectful; and for her tag phrase: "Get some".

Ruth Westheimer went on to produce her radio show until 1990.

In 1984, Ruth Westheimer began hosting several television programs on the Lifetime TV network, and one in syndication.

In 1987 she began a separate half-hour syndicated series on many broadcast stations called Ask Dr Ruth Westheimer, which was co-hosted by Larry Angelo.

However, Ruth Westheimer backed out when she learned the role involved her playing a thief.

Ruth Westheimer appeared on a TV Guide cover in 1988.

Dr Ruth Westheimer returned to the Lifetime network in 1988 with The All New Dr Ruth Westheimer Show.

Ruth Westheimer appeared on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs in 1990, on The Arsenio Hall Show once in 1990, once in 1991, once in 1993, and once in 1994, on The Howard Stern Show once in 1991, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien once in 1994, twice in 1995, three times in 1996, and once in 1997, on The Daily Show once in 1998, and was featured in a Celebrity Deathmatch episode in 1999.

Dr Ruth Westheimer appeared in several commercial advertisements, including a 1990 commercial for Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo and body wash, a 1991 Pepsi commercial, and a 1994 Honda Prelude ad.

On her 91st birthday, June 4,2019, Ruth Westheimer appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and she visited Ellen's show again in November 2019, taking questions from the audience, and was a guest in November 2020.

In 2019, Ruth Westheimer appeared as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers, The View, The Today Show, and twice on Strahan, Sara and Keke.

Ruth Westheimer has delivered commencement speeches at the Hebrew Union College seminary, Lehman College of the City University of New York and, in 2004, at Trinity College, where she has been awarded honorary degrees.

Ruth Westheimer was the guest speaker at the Bronx High School of Science in New York in commemoration of Yom HaShoah 2008, and received an honorary Bronx High School of Science diploma.

Ruth Westheimer was the Executive Producer for PBS documentaries Surviving Salvation and No Missing Link, Shifting Sands: Bedouin Women at the Crossroads, and The Unknown Face of Islam.

Ruth Westheimer is a board member of the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in Lower Manhattan in New York City.

Ruth Westheimer was made a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, which is an honor for a non-physician.

In October 2013 the one-woman play Becoming Dr Ruth Westheimer, written by Mark St Germain and directed by Julianne Boyd and set in 1997, opened Off Broadway at the Westside Theatre.

In 2019, the documentary Ask Dr Ruth Westheimer directed by Ryan White was in theaters, and was made available on Hulu, as she approached her 90th birthday.

In 2008 Ruth Westheimer's name was added to the Bronx Walk of Fame.

Ruth Westheimer has been married three times, the first two times briefly.

Ruth Westheimer said each of her marriages played an important role in her relationship advice, but after two divorces it was her third marriage, at age 32 to fellow Holocaust survivor Manfred 'Fred' Westheimer, that was the "real marriage".

Ruth Westheimer met Fred on a ski tow in the Catskills.

Ruth Westheimer has two children, both of whom have doctorates, Miriam Yael Westheimer, who lived in Israel for six years and later married Joel Henry Einleger, and Joel Westheimer, a professor at the University of Ottawa, and four grandchildren.

In December 2014, Ruth Westheimer was a guest at a wedding in the Bronx.