Friday Mieography

Did we ever really think that a little tiny Jewish woman would be the one who unabashedly went on the TV and Radio to talk about sex?
Responsible for opening up the subject without hesitation, and, educating Americans about many, many things, today, we are going to learn a little bit more about Dr. Ruth.

She was born in June of 1928 in Frankfurt, Germany, the only child of Julius and Irma Siegel, Orthodox Jews, whom were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Her name was Karola Ruth Siegel. Her mother and Grandmother sent her to Switzerland in 1939 after her father was taken by the Nazi's. She was placed in an orphanage, where she stayed until she came of age. Any communication from her parents stopped in 1941, she learned later that they had been killed, probably at Auschwitz.
Once she was old enough, she immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. She joined the Haganah, in Jerusalem, where, even though she was only 4'7, she was trained as a scout and sharpshooter. She was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during the 1948 Israeli war of independence. It took several months before she could walk again.
In 1950, she moved to France, and both studied and taught psychology at the University of Paris. In 1956 she made her way to the US, specifically, Manhattan, the Washington Heights area, where she still lives to this day. She belongs to two synagogues, the YMHA (young mens hebrew association, of all things) and enjoys the large community of Jewish German refugees who still live there. She is also multi lingual,speaking English, German, French and Hebrew.
She has two degrees, a Masters in Sociology, and an Ed.D, both from Columbia University. She completed her post doctoral work in human sexuality at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
She has written several books on that matter, including Sex for Dummies. She teaches courses and seminars at varied places, including Yale and Princeton. She has also been on multiple television shows, including David Letterman, and her own show, "Sexually Speaking". The Wall Street Journal described her as "a cross between Henry Kissinger and Minnie Mouse". Recently, she has actually been on a PBS children's show, called "Between the Lions" as "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer", who helps anxious readers and spellers. In the January 2009 55th anniversary of Playboy, she was # 13 on the list of the 55 most important people in sex from the past 55 years.
She's been married three times, but her third marriage to Manfred Westheimer, is the one that stuck. They have two children, and many grandchildren. He passed away in 1997. I am guessing he was a very happy man.