Leon Kass

Leon Kass is the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago, a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute and, since 2021, Dean of the Faculty at Shalem College in Jerusalem. He served as vice chairman and research committee chairman of the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from 2001 to 2005, as chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics.

A lifelong enthusiast of liberal education, Dr. Kass earned an MD and a PhD in biochemistry before shifting from practicing science to thinking about its human meaning. For more than 50 years, he has been engaged with ethical and philosophical issues raised by biomedical advances and, more recently, with broader cultural issues.

His books include “Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus” (Yale University Press, 2021); “Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times” (Encounter Books, 2017); “What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song” (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2013), coedited with Amy Kass and Diana Schaub; “The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis” (University of Chicago Press, 2006); “Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics” (Encounter Books, 2002; “Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), coedited with Amy Kass; and “The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature” (University of Chicago Press, 1999).

Research interests:
Ethics & Human Flourishing
Liberal Education
Bioethics