Date: August 2, 2006
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

Sinai Forum Partners With Purdue North Central For Future Seasons

Front row: Sylvia Bankoff, co-founder (with her late husband, Dr. Milton L. Bankoff) of the Forum Back row, left to right:- Judy Jacobi, PNC director of marketing; James B. Dworkin, PNC Chancellor; Wendy Levenfeld, Executive Director of the Forum 2006 Season Lineup

WESTVILLE –The Sinai Forum, a great community tradition of more than 50 years in Michigan City and LaPorte County, has announced that it has formed a partnership with Purdue University North Central.

This partnership, as announced at a news conference Wednesday, will now be known as, “The Sinai Forum Presented by Purdue University North Central.” The Forum’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the agreement renaming the series.

“For more than a half century, the Forum has provided this community with the very finest programming available anywhere in the country. This agreement represents a major step in ensuring that the Forum will be around for another half century,” stated Forum Executive Director Wendy Levenfeld. “The Forum’s long-standing community and business support, through donations and ticket sales, will continue to be imperative to continuing to bring the high quality speakers the Forum audience has come to expect and deserve.”

Purdue North Central Chancellor Dr. James B. Dworkin welcomed this new relationship noting that PNC is committed to helping the Forum continue its tradition of bringing a diverse slate of speakers to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain the community.

“As Mario Cuomo stated from the Forum stage ‘the Sinai Forum is nothing less than remarkable.’ And we at PNC are pleased to help see that it stays that way,” said Dworkin.

Past Forum speakers have included Eleanor Roosevelt, Ogden Nash, William O. Douglas, Walter Cronkite, Howard K. Smith, Ann Landers, Ralph Nader, Whitney Young, Bill Veeck, Buckminister Fuller, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Pearl Bailey, Itzhak Rabin, Mike Ditka, Homer Drew, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Danny Glover, Robert Kennedy Jr., Martin Jischke, Mae Jemison, Beverly Sills, Nora Ephron and Elie Wiesel.

The Forum will begin its 53rd season on Sept. 10. The programs are presented at Elston Middle School, 317 Detroit Street, Michigan City, and begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. Subscription tickets may be purchased for $60 in person from the Michigan City Public Library in Michigan City, Kabelin Hardware, 512 Andrews Avenue in LaPorte and at PNC Porter County Graduate Center, 600 Vale Park Road, Valparaiso. To charge subscriptions, visit the Forum web site at www.sinaiforum.org.

BOB WOODWARD TO OPEN THE FORUM 2006 SEASON

The 2006 season of the Sinai Forum Presented by Purdue University North Central will open Sept. 10 with Bob Woodward, Pulitzer Price winning author and investigative reporting legend. The author (or co-author) of nine number-one best selling books, he has also won every American journalism prize. From All the President’s Men to his latest book, The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat, he has chronicled the most important events impacting our generation.

On Sept. 24 Carol Marin, Emmy winning television journalist, will explain what viewers should expect from, and look for, in news media personalities. Her resignation from the 10 p.m. news anchor position at WMAQ-TV in Chicago resulted in her becoming know as one of the most ethical television journalists on the air.

The Oct. 22 Forum will feature Professor Henry Pollack, one of our nation’s leading authorities on global warming, who will provide a look at this controversial topic. A professor of geophysics at the University of Michigan, Pollack will delve into how scientific uncertainty and public policy are intertwined.

On Nov. 12 Joel Siegel, ABC media critic and master storyteller, will speak about the glitz of Hollywood and his very real life battle with cancer. This six-time Emmy winner is also the co-founder - with Gene Wilder - of Gilda’s Club, a New York-based organization offering emotional and social support for cancer patients and their families.

The season closes Dec. 3 with Vince Papale whose amazing story of going from season ticket holder to player and team captain of the Philadelphia Eagles will delight and inspire. His story is told in a new book, Invincible. A motion picture of the same name, starring Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear, is due to be released in the fall.