Dr. Ruth Westheimer is known for her unabashed, often humorous sex advice.
But when I ask her what her own sex life was at 28, she demurs.
Next question!Westheimer tells me, before breaking out in a fit of laughter.
I’m very Jewish, and in the Jewish tradition, sex has never been a sin.
So I never had any of these problems that others had in being up uptight about talking about sex.
The 94-year-olds journey to becoming Americas most celebrated sex therapist was an improbable one.
(They later died in concentration camps.)
After World War II ended, Westheimer went to Israel and trained as a sniper.
I didnt know that I would become Dr. Ruth.
I was fortunate, she says, crediting the many women who helped and inspired her along the way.
I got training byDr.
Helen Singer Kaplanat Cornell Universitys medical school.
Westheimer stayed in academia until 1980, when she launched the radio call-in showSexually Speakingat age 52.
When asked about all shes accomplished, Westheimer responds with the same cheeky wit that made her a star.
Not bad for a little immigrant without a high school diploma, she says.
Not bad at all.
Take me back to 1956, when you were 28.
It was the year you moved to America.
What was that experience like for you?
I didn’t think that I would immigrate.
And I had my daughter Miriam here a year later, and then we divorced.
Then I luckily found Fred Westheimer from Germany, also an immigrant to this country.
He was an American citizen, so I became a citizen and here I stayed.
How were you feeling about your life and career upon moving?
I thought I’d be either a kindergarten teacher or maybe a director of a kindergarten.
I spoke very little English, but the people at The New School spoke German and some spoke Hebrew.
So I learned English fast.
Then I transferred to Columbia University’s Teachers College, also on a scholarship.
So this country, and the academic world in this country, were very good to me.
You were doing a lot of studying.
Was there anything you liked to do to unwind?
Oh, I was out every night.
I always had tremendous energy [because] I’m so short, four-foot-seven.
Where you would you go to dance?
Only in people’s houses.
So every Friday we had a party.
I only provided the potato chips and the music and the [guests] all brought food.
[We danced to] Israeli folk music, also the German Waltz, and the Conga.
I was a good dancer.
Do you have any regrets from age 28?
Not even my failed marriages, two of them.
Because then I married Fred Westheimer, that was the real marriage.
Has there been a time where you felt like you made it?
Like today, because you are calling.
I’m very fortunate.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
