EXCLUSIVE – Sex Therapist Dr. Ruth at 90: I Could Never Have Dreamed Of Being In Israel At This Time

TEL AVIV – Renowned sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who is slated to attend the opening of the relocated U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, told Breitbart Jerusalem in an exclusive interview that she could have never imagined being in Israel celebrating the country’s 70th anniversary.

“I am particularly happy to be here for the 70th year of Israel,” Dr. Ruth said.

“It’s something that I would have never dreamed [of], that I would have the privilege to be here after 70 years of Israel’s declaration,” she said.

She recalled hearing Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion declare the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 from Tel Aviv, and joked that since she wasn’t yet famous, she wasn’t there to witness the momentous occasion live.

“I was in Jerusalem and I heard him talk from Tel Aviv on the radio because at that time I wasn’t Dr. Ruth,” she quipped.

The octogenarian, who turns 90 next month, said she was “really hoping” that this time around she would be in the right place at the right time, namely in Jerusalem during the opening of the U.S. embassy in its new location.

However, she was quick to add the caveat, “I don’t talk politics.”

Dr. Ruth, who was invited to Israel as the keynote speaker at the Forbes Under 30 Global Summit, said she never imagined not making the Jewish state her home.

She first arrived in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine in 1945 and was trained as a sniper with the Haganah – the paramilitary forerunner to the IDF – in part because of her tiny 4-foot-7-inch stature.

A cannonball attack seriously wounded Dr. Ruth in the 1948 War of Independence.

“I had to learn to walk again, which took a lot of hard work and the help of good friends,” she told Breitbart Jerusalem.

“Now I could dance the whole night if I find a good partner – even today,” she laughed.

Following the injury, Dr. Ruth moved to Paris before emigrating to her current home in New York City.

“I never thought that I would not live in Israel but life showed me different.” 

She has no regrets, she says, because reaching the levels of fame she achieved as a sex therapist would have never have been possible had she have remained in Israel. 

“I have a new TV program [coming out] at the age of 90 — that could have only happened in the U.S.,” she noted. 

“Still, I’m in Israel every year and I’m very happy to see how how it has developed,” she said. 

On stage at the 700-person Forbes summit, Dr. Ruth counseled a married millennial couple who made the decision to set up a business together. 

How does she stay relevant with younger generations?

“I’m very fortunate that I’m healthy and that I can appreciate young people and appreciate their problems,” she said, adding that she believes the “main problem [among] young people is loneliness.”

“They’re hooked on their phones,” she said. 

And then she bragged, “I have 90,000 followers on my Twitter.”