The fact that Dr. Ruth Westheimer, arguably the most famous sex therapist alive today, is also a Holocaust survivor always struck me as nothing more than a surprising coincidence. Survivors went on to occupy a range of professions — why not sex therapy, too? But it turns out that enduring trauma — or at least…
After watching the excellent production of “Becoming Dr. Ruth,” at Manhattan’s West End Theatre, my first thought was that someone had handed playwright Mark St. Germain (creator of “Freud’s Last Session”) a gimme. On the face of it, all Germain had to do was stick a microphone in front of the voluble sex therapist, transcribe…
Legendary sex therapist Ruth Westheimer is taking Sisterhood reader questions on the next episode of The Jewish Channel’s The Salon, taping this coming Thursday with Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner and Rachel Sklar, founder of TheLi.st. Send your questions about sex and relationships to thesalon@tjctv.com by Wednesday night and The Salon will put them to its…
More than just spiritual forefathers of the sex therapist and ex-Haganah sniper Ruth Westheimer, a trio of German Jewish sexologists preceded Sigmund Freud in innovations. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935); Iwan Bloch (1872–1922); and Albert Moll (1862–1939) are no longer household names, but they star in Modernism and Perversion: Sexual Deviance in Sexology and Literature, 1850-1930. Its…
It turns out that Dr. Ruth Westheimer wasn’t kidding when she told me that she was coming out with her very own line of wines. When I interviewed her at an event at the Jewish Theological Seminary last March, she was talking a mile a minute about latest projects. She mentioned the wine somewhere in…
Pop star Shakira is on her way to Jerusalem — not to perform, but to speak about childhood education at a summit organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres. The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer will participate in the Israeli Presidential Conference this month with an eclectic set of guests, who range from Dr. Ruth and Sarah…
Dr. Ruth Westheimer has a new project — and it has nothing to do with the bedroom. The pint-sized 82-year-old sex expert is in Tel Aviv researching a PBS documentary on Israel’s Circassian Muslim community, the Associated Press reported on August 18. Those who know Westheimer for her tips on intimacy and sexual literacy may…
The New York Times is reporting that Rabbi James Ponet officiated, alongside Reverend William Shillady, at the Saturday evening wedding of Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky. Ponet is Yale’s Jewish chaplain and heads the university’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. Read his bio here. At Yale, he’s taught a seminar on “The…
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