On Tuesday, December 3, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., together with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, world renowned psychosexual therapist and author, will host the borough’s annual Chanukah celebration.
The event will take place at 1 p.m.in the Bronx County Building, 851 Grand Concourse, in Veterans Memorial Hall. Traditional Chanukah foods, such as latkes and jelly donuts, will be served. The event will also feature a musical performance from Kinneret Day School choir.
“As borough president, I invite all Bronxites to participate in our annual Chanukah celebration. I am thrilled to have Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a member of the Bronx Walk of Fame, join me on this festive occasion,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
“The celebration of Chanukah reminds us that we can triumph over oppression of all kinds, no matter what the odds. It is a triumph of a little light over total darkness. I am thrilled to be partnering with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to help celebrate Chanukah and light the Menorah, back in my favorite borough, the Bronx” said Dr. Ruth Westheimer who will serve as MC at the event.
Dr. Westheimer was born in Germany and in 1938 was sent to a children’s home in Switzerland which 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 Israel’s independence as a member of the Haganah. She moved to Paris, where she studied at the Sorbonne and taught kindergarten, and then went to the US in 1956 where she obtained her Masters Degree in Sociology from the New School of Social Research and in 1970 received her Doctorate of Education from Columbia University Teachers College.
Dr. Ruth is a psychosexual therapist who helped to pioneer the field of media psychology with her radio program, Sexually Speaking. Her unique style has enabled her to make wide use of the mass media to spread what she has labeled “sexual literacy”. Her radio and television career has spanned both broadcast and cable both in the US and around the world. She is the author of 36 books and counting, with two more in the hopper and has produced six documentaries. And her life story has been brought to the stage in the one-woman show “Becoming Dr. Ruth.”
She is a member of the board of YM-YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood, where she served as its President for 11 years, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Dr Westheimer has 2 children and 4 grandchildren.
The event is co-sponsored jointly by the Bronx Jewish Community Council, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and the Bronx Tourism Council.