News Release
July 2003
(Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)— Moravian will celebrate 20 years
of the Cohen Arts and Lectures Series with a timely lecture by Thomas
L. Friedman, “The global economy and U.S. foreign policy,” on
Thursday, October 2, at 8 p.m. This 20th annual Cohen Arts and Lecture
Series program will be held in Johnston Hall at Moravian College, located
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Friedman is among the best-known and respected analysts of the Middle
East. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author, his
column for the New York Times take an authoritative approach to complex
global issues. He won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary (his third
Pulitzer for The New York Times). He became the paper's foreign-affairs
columnist in 1995. Previously, he served as chief economic correspondent
in the Washington bureau and before that he was the chief White House
correspondent.
In the months following 9/11, Friedman’s Op-Ed page column for
The New York Times provided the clarifying, evenhanded assessments
that were so urgently sought. In awarding him his third Pulitzer Prize
(the 2002 award for Distinguished Commentary), the Pulitzer Board cited
his “clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting
on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.”
Friedman’s New York Times bestseller, Longitudes and Attitudes, traces
his post-9/11 journey from Afghanistan to Israel, Europe, Indonesia and Saudi
Arabia to meet with the regions’ leaders, thinkers and citizens. Filled
with emotional reactions and reasoned analysis, the book also includes a collection
of his Pulitzer-winning columns.
Friedman has covered many of the monumental stories
of recent decades, from the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin to the
return of Hong Kong
to China. His tireless reporting skills and innate knack for obtaining
the right information from the right people have earned him two Pulitzer
Prizes for International Reporting (for his coverage of Israel and
Lebanon in ’83 and ’88).
In 1981 Friedman joined The New York Times as a business reporter, specializing
in OPEC and oil-related news. He was quickly named Beirut bureau chief (just
six weeks before the Israeli invasion). He also has served as Israel bureau
chief, Washington chief diplomatic correspondent, chief White House correspondent
and chief economics correspondent.
Friedman appears in his own segment on The NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer called “Tom’s Journal” in which
he shares his reflections and opinions on his most recent trips abroad.
He is also a frequent
guest on other current affairs programs, including Face the Nation
and Charlie Rose.
His bestseller From Beirut to Jerusalem serves as a basic text on
the Middle East in many colleges and universities nationwide. It won
both the National Book Award and Overseas Press Club Award in 1989.
Friedman is also author of the international bestseller,
The Lexus and the Olive Tree (translated into 20 languages), which
explains globalization’s
effect on the politics, culture and economics of an increasingly interwoven
global community. Kirkus Reviews called it “simply the best book
written on globalization.”
Friedman was born in Minneapolis on July 20, 1953. After finishing
high school in Minneapolis, he attended Brandeis University, where
he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1975 with a degree in Mediterranean
Studies. During his undergraduate years, he spent semesters abroad
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American University in
Cairo. After completing his B.A., Mr. Friedman attended St. Antony's
College, Oxford University, on a Marshall Scholarship. In 1978, he
received a master's degree in Modern Middle East Studies from Oxford
and immediately thereafter joined the London Bureau of United Press
International. Mr. Friedman spent a year in London doing general assignment
reports
Friedman’s appearance marks the 20th anniversary
of the Cohen series at Moravian College. In past years, the series
has brought to
Bethlehem such notables as Anna Quindlen, Andrea Mitchell, Joseph Kennedy
II, Ambassador Andrew Young, James Carville and John Sununu, the New
York Philomusica, former President Jimmy Carter, author Kurt Vonnegut,
former governor Mario Cuomo, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, David
Gergen, Cokie Roberts, Gloria Steinem, Carl Sagan, Burl Ives, David
Brinkley, Mark Russell, and others.
The Cohen Arts and Lectures Series at Moravian College
was established in 1984 by Bernard (deceased) and Bertha Cohen, who
were active in Bethlehem business and community affairs until their
1976 relocation to Boca Raton, Florida. Bertha Cohen was a 1937 Moravian
graduate and a former member of the college’s board of trustees.
Bernard Cohen was a member of the Lehigh University class of 1936.
Tickets for the lecture are $10 and will be at the HUB desk in the
Haupert Union Building, located at the corner of Monocacy and West
Locust streets. Tickets may be purchased by phone during normal business
hours at (610) 861-1336. Proceeds from the performance benefit the
Moravian College Scholarship Fund.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective liberal arts
college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its founding to
1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college. For more
information call (610) 861-1491 or visit the web site at www.moravian.edu.
