Please join us for a virtual discussion with World-renowned sex therapist, talk show host, and professor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer. Dr. Ruth was born in Germany in 1928 and sent to an orphanage in Switzerland at the age of ten. Her parents were killed during the Holocaust. After the end of World War II she immigrated to British-controlled Palestine and in 1948, she was for a very short time in the Haganah, before being wounded on both legs on her 20th birthday. In our conversation she will talk about her childhood in Germany, her years in a Swiss orphanage, and mainly about her time in Israel before and during the 1948/49 War. She will tell us what it meant for her to fight for Israel’s independence and how she kept in close touch with Israel over the decades.

Moderated by MIchael Brenner, Seymour and Lillian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies at American University.

This program is made possible through the generosity of the Ken and Mimi Heyman Israel Studies Programming Fund.