Auf X war „Dr. Ruth“ noch fast bis zum Schluss aktiv: Sie kommentierte lustige Videos und gab Ende Juni sogar noch Tipps zum Kreuzworträtsel in der New York Times: „Ich kann euch einen Tipp zu einem der Hinweise geben … ich bin es!“ Und sie teilte einen Post der Journalistin und Autorin Allison Gilbert, mit der sie gemeinsam das Buch „The Joy of Connections“ schrieb. „Aktueller Status! Wir überarbeiten die ersten Seiten von The Joy of Connections, dem Buch, dass ich mit @AskDrRuth über die Überwindung von Einsamkeit schreibe. Dr. Ruth ist gerade 96 geworden und so aufgeregt vor dem Erscheinungstermin im Oktober!“
Diesen Termin wird die deutsch-amerikanische Soziologin und Sexttherapeutin Ruth Westheimer, wie „Dr. Ruth“ mit vollem Namen heißt, nicht mehr erleben. Sie starb am Freitag in ihrer Wohnung in New York, wie ein Sprecher mitteilte.
Westheimer was born Karola Ruth Siegel to Orthodox Jewish parents in Wiesenfeld, Hesse, in 1928. After the November pogroms, she was rescued from the Nazis in 1938 on the so-called Kindertransport and then lived in a Swiss children's home for six years. After the war, she emigrated to Palestine, where she was trained as a sniper as a member of the Zionist underground organization Hagana. She eventually moved to Paris to study psychology before emigrating to the USA in 1956. There she earned her master's degree in sociology, completed her doctorate and trained as a sex therapist in New York.
Westheimer, as she was called after her marriage in 1957, became known to a wider audience in the 1980s. In a New York radio show, she answered listeners' questions about sex and relationships – taboo subjects at the time. Columns and television appearances followed, and Westheimer also wrote numerous self-help books.
As can be seen from an X-post by her co-author Allison Gilbert, the two visited Fort Tyron Park in New York shortly before Westheimer's death. There is a bench there dedicated to Westheimer's husband, who died in 1997. “My love has gone down to his garden,” it says. Now Westheimer has followed him. She leaves behind a daughter, a son and four grandchildren.
