Althouse: "Who knew that the world-famous sex therapist was sent to Switzerland with a group of German-Jewish children in 1938, when she was ten years old..."

November 10, 2013

"Who knew that the world-famous sex therapist was sent to Switzerland with a group of German-Jewish children in 1938, when she was ten years old..."

"... and was treated like a servant there? Or that her entire family was killed by the Nazis? Or that she moved to Palestine as a teen-ager and became a sniper in the Haganah? Who knew that her success as a radio-show host was due to a vow she made to herself to 'repair the world' because she survived the Nazis, when more than a million Jewish children didn’t?"

16 comments:

Alex said...: Amazing person.; 11/10/13, 3:15 PM
YoungHegelian said...: "Repair the World" = tikkun olam.

A phrase much fraught with meaning for the more liberal branches of Judaism, of which Dr. Ruth was a member. That's why there's a social democrat/progressive Jewish magazine called Tikkun.; 11/10/13, 3:22 PM
rcocean said...: So she came a 'sex-therapist' to repair the world?

Okey-dokey.; 11/10/13, 3:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "So she came a 'sex-therapist' to repair the world?"

Well, that's why it's a great story for a theatre piece, "Becoming Dr. Ruth." How do you get from Point A to Point B?; 11/10/13, 3:44 PM
Tom said...: I'd like to see a Dr. Ruth versus Ayn Rand in a celebrity cage max!; 11/10/13, 3:49 PM
Tom said...: Damn auto correct - match!; 11/10/13, 3:50 PM
paul a'barge said...: There is no "Palestine". There was no "Palestine". There never has been a "Palestine". There are no "Palestinian" people.

There is a Zion. There was a Zion and then there wasn't. And from now on there will always be a Zion.

History. Study it.; 11/10/13, 4:05 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @rcocean,

So she came a 'sex-therapist' to repair the world?

Making the world a better place one smushka & schmeckel at a time, my dear rc.; 11/10/13, 4:14 PM
Hagar said...: According to Wikipedia, the region has been called Palestine, or rather some variation of "Palestine," by the ancient Egyptians from 1150 or so BC, and every empire that has occupied it since, and the various people living in it at any particular time, including "the Jews," would presumably often be referred to under the general classification of "Palestinians."; 11/10/13, 4:17 PM
fivewheels said...: I knew most of that. Isn't that a pretty standard part of the Dr. Ruth bio? The whole "you wouldn't think that of this little lady" was always a big part of her persona.

None of it is secret, or something you had to be a Ruth-o-phile to know. I think I must have heard it when she was on with Johnny Carson, for heaven's sake.; 11/10/13, 4:34 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: Like the mid Atlantic states or appalachia are regions, "Palestine" has never been a self governing sovereign country. The Arabs who lived there were indistinguishable from those who lived in the areas we now call Jordan and Syria and Egypt. Even the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat himself, was not a "Palestinian". He was born in Egypt.; 11/10/13, 4:37 PM
Michael K said...: " Even the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat himself, was not a "Palestinian". He was born in Egypt."

The Lebanese referred to him as "The Tunisian" when Clinton brought him back from Tunisia and resumed the war.; 11/10/13, 4:42 PM
Hagar said...: And Abraham was a "swamp Arab" from Ur in Iraq.; 11/10/13, 4:49 PM
Hagar said...: Other than in the "time of David and Solomon," 900 +/- BC, and probably 50-100 years to each side, were "Israel" ever a self-governing country before 1948 AD?; 11/10/13, 4:52 PM
Sam L. said...: I did not know that. She's quite a woman!; 11/10/13, 6:44 PM
Gary Rosen said...: rc is pissed that she survived.; 11/10/13, 11:08 PM