{"id":159217,"date":"2021-07-15T10:45:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T14:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/?p=159217"},"modified":"2021-07-15T10:35:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T14:35:02","slug":"penn-president-nominated-as-ambassador-to-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishexponent.com\/penn-president-nominated-as-ambassador-to-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn President Nominated as Ambassador to Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Joe Biden nominated University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann on July 2 to serve as the United States ambassador to Germany.<\/p>\n
If confirmed, Gutmann, who is Jewish, would be the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Germany, and she would likely conclude her 18-year tenure in 2022 as Penn\u2019s longest-serving president.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the daughter of a German Jewish refugee, as a first-generation college graduate, and as a university leader devoted to advancing constitutional democracy,\u201d Gutmann said in a statement, \u201cI am grateful beyond what any words can adequately express to President Biden for the faith he has placed in me to help represent America\u2019s values and interests to one of our closest and most important European allies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Gutmann\u2019s father, Kurt Gutmann, was born in Nuremberg, Bavaria, and fled Nazi Germany in 1934 to Bombay, India, before moving to New York, where Amy Gutmann was born.<\/span><\/p>\n Her father\u2019s refugeedom left a lasting impact on Gutmann.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest influences on me for leading preceded my ever even thinking of myself as a leader \u2014 particularly my father\u2019s experience leaving Nazi Germany,\u201d Gutmann said in a 2011 New York Times interview. \u201cTo me, those two things are really important about leadership, to have courage and to be farsighted in your vision, not to be just reacting to the next small challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n