Ruth Siegel in Germany in June 1928, Westheimer survived the Holocaust as a child, but her parents were killed in the tragedy. She later moved to Switzerland to live in an orphanage for Jewish refugee children.
In 1950, she relocated to Paris and studied psychology, but she ultimately settled in New York City after emigrating to the United States. There, she attended The New School for Social Research, and she eventually became a U.S. citizen. While working at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Harlem,in 1980 Westheimer began offering advice on a weekly radio show in New York called Sexually Speaking. It became so popular that it was nationally syndicated in 1984. She went on to host her own talk shows and publish more than 40 books, including 1995’s Sex for Dummies.
