Karola Ruth Westheimer (b.1928), better known as Dr. Ruth, is a German-American sex therapist, media personality, author, radio, television talk show host, sniper, and Holocaust survivor. Ruth Westheimer was born Karola Ruth Siegal in Wiesenfeld, Germany. She was the only child of Irma and Julius Siegel, Orthodox Jews. At the end of 1938 (some sources say early 1939), ten-year-old Ruth was sent from Frankfurt to an orphanage in Switzerland for her protection, after her father was arrested by the Nazis. After the war, 17-year-old Ruth was sent to Palestine via Marseille, because her parents were not amongst the survivors of the Holocaust. There she joined a kibbutz and the Jewish resistance.

During the 1950s, Ruth made her way to New York via France where she had gone to university to study psychology. She stayed on in America, becoming a citizen in 1965. Her media career began in 1980 with the radio show Sexually Speaking, which continued until 1990. She has hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993 and is the author of 45 books on sex and sexuality.