{"id":27768,"date":"2024-07-15T15:27:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T19:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768"},"modified":"2024-07-15T15:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T19:27:08","slug":"ruth-westheimer-ma-sociology-59-noted-sex-therapist-and-author-dies-at-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768","title":{"rendered":"Ruth Westheimer, MA Sociology \u201959, Noted Sex Therapist and Author, Dies at 96"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newschool.edu\/outcomes\/notable-new-schoolers\/\">New School alumna<\/a> Dr. Ruth Westheimer, best known as the sexpert Dr. Ruth, brought sex therapy into the mainstream through her radio and television shows that achieved success throughout the U.S. Her rise to fame began in New York with a regional radio call-in program that was later syndicated nationwide.&nbsp; At the height of her influence, she had syndicated radio and television shows, wrote a column for magazines, board and computer games, and created guidebooks on sexuality to educate adults of all ages.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Westheimer was born in Germany 1928 to Jewish parents whom she lost in the Holocaust. She later had a peripatetic upbringing, being sent to Switzerland as a child to escape the Nazis, and later moving to Israel, then Paris before arriving in New York in 1956. While the success she achieved has been described as an \u201conly-in-America\u201d story, she said in a 2019 interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2019\/01\/ask-dr-ruth-sundance-interview.html\">Vulture<\/a> that it \u201ccould\u2019ve only happened in New York City, because of the fact that New Yorkers are used to different accents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She earned a sociology master&#8217;s degree from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newschool.edu\/nssr\/\">The New School for Social Research<\/a> in 1959. Westheimer returned in 2019 for an in depth conversation with Bill Ritter \u201816 about her remarkable career as part of the university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newschool.edu\/100\/\">Centennial celebration<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Westheimer was featured in the documentary, <em>Asking Dr. Ruth, <\/em>where she reflected on her life as she entered her 90s. In the same Vulture interview, it notes \u201cwhat stands out most in <em>Ask Dr. Ruth<\/em> isn\u2019t necessarily Westheimer\u2019s delightfully frank talk about sexuality, or the unbelievable fact that she\u2019s still writing books and making appearances and teaching even after turning 90. It\u2019s Westheimer\u2019s unflagging optimism and irrepressible lust for, well, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New School alumna Dr. Ruth Westheimer, best known as the sexpert Dr. Ruth, brought sex therapy into the mainstream through her radio and television shows that achieved success throughout the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":27769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25291,25285],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-27768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-featured","category-alumni-info","tag-nssr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ruth Westheimer, MA Sociology \u201959, Noted Sex Therapist and Author, Dies at 96 - The New School News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ruth Westheimer, MA Sociology \u201959, Noted Sex Therapist and Author, Dies at 96 - The New School News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New School alumna Dr. Ruth Westheimer, best known as the sexpert Dr. Ruth, brought sex therapy into the mainstream through her radio and television shows that achieved success throughout the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The New School News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T19:27:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-15T19:27:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/files\/2024\/07\/20191005_Dr_Ruth_010-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"875\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"876\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sneadm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sneadm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/news\/?p=27768\",\"name\":\"Ruth Westheimer, MA Sociology \u201959, Noted Sex Therapist and Author, Dies at 96 - 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