Thomas Friedman To Speak at Next Week's MJCCA

Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author is coming next week to the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

The New York Times columnist will be speaking Monday about his newest book, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World it Invented and How We Can Come Back.

The book, which is co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, a professor of American Foreign Police at Johns Hopkins University, looks at how America is failing to meet its challenges of globalization, the information technology revolution, chronic deficits and energy consumption.

In the book, the authors delve into how the end of the cold war blinded the nation to the need to address these issues.

Friedman will be speaking at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the MJCCA as a Prologue to the Book Festival event.

Tickets are on sale now at the MJCCA ($15 for members and $22 for non-members).

Friedman, 58, was born and raised in the Minneapolis area. He’s a graduate of Brandeis University, with a degree from St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He also received a Masters of Philosophy in Middle East studies from Oxford.

His career began at United Press International, but he quickly moved to the New York Times, where he’s worked as a reporter, correspondent, bureau chief and columnist. He’s won three Pulitzer Prizes during his career at the Times, including the prize for International Reporting in 1983 for his coverage of the Lebanese Civil War, the prize for International Reporting in 1988 for his coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in 2002 prize for Commentary for his columns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

His books include the best selling The World is Flat and From Beirut to Jerusalem.

Friedman’s event will be a preview to the 20th year of the MJCCA Book Festival, which begins on Nov. 5. This year’s line up includes Dyan Cannon, Erica Jong, Jim Lehrer, Gilad Sharon, Chris Matthews and many more.

Tickets are on sale now. Buy them at the MJCCA website or call 678.812.4002