CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Conrad C. Nowak, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP and

EVENT CO-CHAIRS

Michael Traison, Miller Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC
Bozena Nowicka McLees, Polish Studies, Loyola University Chicago
Michelle Smolinski Covington
and the Polish American Association cordially invite you to meet our Honored Guest Speaker

SIGMUND ROLAT

A businessman and philanthropist, who has contributed to numerous Polish causes; he is the inspiration and driving force behind the creation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

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Sigmund Rolat was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1930.  Though losing his parents and older brother Jerzyk, he survived the Holocaust in hiding and in the forced labor camp Hasag Pelcery. Sigmund Rolat came to the United States in 1948.  He earned his B.A. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.A. in International Relations from New York University.  In 1959, he established an international freight forwarding business, Skyline Shipping Corporation.  In 1962, his business activities broadened into the field of finance when Oxford International Corporation was formed with Rolat as the President and sole shareholder.  Oxford financed exports from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, Australia, the Far East and the entire African continent. His additional business interests include proprietary involvement in several companies, real estate holdings and investments in Poland, where he served as President of Oxford Polska.

Sigmund Rolat’s chief philanthropic endeavor is the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, currently under construction in Warsaw.  He serves as Chairman of the Museum’s North American Council.  He has been a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev and a member of the Board of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.  Rolat serves on numerous advisory boards which include the Kosciuszko Foundation, Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, American Society for Jewish Heritage in Poland, and the President’s Council of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA.  He is the Chairman of the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, the Isaac Bashevis Singer Festival in Warsaw and the Shalom Foundation. He is involved in the Jan Karski Educational Initiative both in the U.S.A. and in Poland.  Additionally, he is President of the World Society of Czestochowa Jews and Their Descendants.

On April 15, 2008, Sigmund Rolat was awarded by President Lech Kaczynski the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.  On October 3, 2012, Sigmund Rolat became Honorary Citizen of his native Czestochowa. He also serves as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Gambia in New York City.

Sigmund Rolat currently resides in Manhattan and Bal Harbour, Florida.  He has three children and is a proud grandfather of four.