Leon Botstein

Leon Botstein
President of Bard College
Assumed office
1975
Preceded byReamer Kline
Personal details
BornDecember 14, 1946 (1946-12-14) (age 77)
Zürich, Switzerland
SpouseBarbara Haskell
Children4
EducationUniversity of Chicago (BA)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
OccupationScholar, Conductor, Educator
Websitewww.leonbotstein.com

Leon Botstein (born December 14, 1946, in Zürich, Switzerland) is a Swiss-born American conductor, educator, and scholar serving as the President of Bard College.[1][2]

  1. ^ Profile: Leon Botstein, Hadassah Magazine, "Botstein is a proud secular Jew not ambivalent or defensive about his identity. In I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl (Jewish Lights), he writes: "In Judaism, learning is prayer, for it celebrates the human capacity for language and thought." He waxes nostalgic for the days of "exceptional Jewry," arguing that "Jews have entered the indistinguishable middle class…. We are no longer the people of the book; we are a people of ordinary vulgarity. The real tragedy of American Jewry—and Israel—is that we've used privilege to become absolutely ordinary.""
  2. ^ Depalma, Anthony (October 4, 1992). "The Most Happy College President: Leon Botstein of Bard". The New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2021.