April 13: Dr. Ruth to speak
Famed radio host Dr. Ruth to visit UD, discuss her life journey
8:54 a.m., March 16, 2016--Ruth Westheimer, well known to radio audiences as Dr. Ruth, will discuss her life journey during a presentation at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 13, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building on the University of Delaware campus in Newark.
The presentation is sponsored by University of Delaware Hillel, Hinenu and Hillel International.
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Westheimer, 87, is a psychosexual therapist who pioneered speaking frankly about sexual matters on radio with her program, Sexually Speaking, which began in September 1980 as a tape 15-minute show that aired Sundays after midnight on WYNY-FM (NBC) in New York.
One year later it became a live, one-hour show on which Dr. Ruth, as she became known, answered call-in questions from listeners.
Born in Germany in 1928, Westheimer was sent to a children’s home in Switzerland at the age of 10. The home became an orphanage for most of the German Jewish students who had been sent there to escape the Holocaust.
At 17 she went to Israel, where she fought for that country's independence as a member of the Haganah, the Jewish freedom fighters.
Westheimer then moved to Paris where she studied at the Sorbonne and taught kindergarten. She immigrated to the U.S. in where she obtained her master’s degree in sociology from the graduate faculty of the New School of Social Research and a doctorate of education in the interdisciplinary study of the family from Columbia University Teacher's College.
She furthered her education in human sexuality by studying under Helen Singer Kaplan at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center.
Currently Westheimer is an adjunct professor at New York University, an associate fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University and a fellow of Butler College at Princeton University. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and, in addition to having her own private practice, she frequently lectures at universities across the country and has twice been named "College Lecturer of the Year."
Those who plan to attend can reserve a ticket at the UD Hillel website. The presentation is free for UD students, $18 for the general public. Each person attending must present their confirmation email at the door for admittance.