About Paul Newell

Paul Newell, a 33 year old community organizer, has committed his life to social justice. Whether working to elect progressive leaders, preserve Yiddish culture or bring needed services to children orphaned by AIDS, Paul has always believed in working together to achieve real change. The Daily News recently called him "the quintessential anti-establishment New York Democrat"

Born and raised in Lower Manhattan, Paul attended New York City public schools, including P.S. 41, Stuyvesant High School and City-As School. After graduating from Whitman College, he returned to New York, working to preserve Yiddish culture as an archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Later, Paul took his passion for social justice to electoral politics, working on Senator Bill Bradley's presidential race and several progressive Congressional candidates.

In 2000, Paul joined Ubuntu Education Fund, then a fledgling international non-profit based out of a broom closet in an elementary school. As Grassroots Director, Paul helped build the organization to an internationally recognized leader in response to HIV and AIDS. Ubuntu now reaches over 40,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Africa, and teaches global health awareness to thousands of New York area students.

Today he is running for New York State Assembly to bring Downtowners the responsive leadership we deserve. A lifelong downtowner, Paul Newell is uniquely suited to this challenge. His roots in the Lower East Side run deep. His mother's family fled persecution in Russia, moving into a tenement on Ludlow Street in 1906. Paul's father emigrated from post-war Europe to New York City in 1956.

On February 5, 2008, Paul Newell was elected as a Delegate pledged to Barack Obama to the 2008 Democratic National Convention from New York's 12th Congressional District.

Paul currently consults for various non-profit organizations and lives in a rent stabilized apartment on Division Street.