Sharon Newman (Chair) is owner and CEO of Action Envelope in Lindenhurst, NY. Her previous careers have been Teacher of English as a Second Language in NYC High Schools, and a stay-at-home mom to three children. Sharon grew up in Queens, NY and attended Queens College. She holds two Master's Degrees: one in Education/HS English and another one in Linguistics. She had never planned to become a business owner, but decided to assume that role when her husband died unexpectedly in 1993. She considers that one of the best decisions she has made in her life. Action Envelope is now the leading on-line envelope company, as ranked by Google. Internet Retailer Magazine has honored the company as one of their Hot 100 web sites. And her company has been included for the past 3 years in the Inc 5000, a list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the US.
Sharon has sat on several boards. Until December 2009, she was on the board of The Small Business Advisory Council to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, at the time, Tim Geithner, and participated with 8 other business owners in national and regional economic briefings. She currently serves on the Long Island Postal Council Customer Board, the steering committee of the Long Island chapter of the Printing Industries Alliance, a trade association, and the Board of Trustees of North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, NY. Previously, she served on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners (Long Island chapter) for 10 years.
In her equally busy personal life, Sharon is the proud mother of Cara, Seth and Lauren, lucky mother-in-law to Keith, Amy and Steve, and delirious grandmother to Ryen (3 years old) and Summer (1 year old).
Allan Gerson is Chairman of AG International Law, PLLC, a Washington, DC based firm that specializes in accountability, largely of foreign governments, for complicity in gross human rights abuses and unlawful expropriation of property.
Mr. Gerson has long been involved in the struggle for accountability for victims of terrorism. He brought the first suit against a foreign state (Libya) on behalf of the families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombing, and was instrumental in passage of the 1996 Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act that made it possible for U.S citizens to sue foreign governments in U.S. courts for complicity in terrorism. His work on behalf of the families of Pan Am flight 103 is chronicled in The Price of Terror (2001, HarperCollins), co-authored with Jerry Adler of Newsweek.
Mr. Gerson earned a J.D. (Juris Doctor) at New York University Law School (1969), a LL.M. (Master of Laws) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1972), and a J.S.D (Doctor of Juridical Science) from Yale Law School (1976). He joined the U.S Justice Department in 1977 and was awarded two Distinguished Performance Awards for his work with the Appellate Section of the Civil Division and with the Office of Special Investigations. In 1981, Mr. Gerson became Counsel to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and in 1985 to her successor, General Vernon Walters.
In 1985 and 1986, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legal Counsel and Counselor for International Affairs at the U.S Department of Justice. From 1986 to 1989 he was a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and from 1989-1995 he served as a Distinguished Professor of International Law and Transactions at George Mason University. From 1998-2000, he served as Senior Fellow for International Law and Organizations at the Council on Foreign Relations. Since 1991 he has been in private law practice, and in 2003 served as Senior Counsel to the US Delegation to the Commission on Human Rights as Senior Counsel. He is admitted to the New York and District of Columbia Bars, and that of the US Supreme Court and various US Courts of Appeals.
He is the author of Lawyers' Ethics: Contemporary Dilemmas (1980), Israel, The West Bank and International Law (1978), The Kirkpatrick Mission: Diplomacy Without Apology (1991), Privatizing Peace: From Conflict to Security (2002), as well as numerous articles in professional journals.
An avid photographer, Mr. Gerson's works are held in museum, corporate, and private collections. A website describing his work is currently under production. Yiddish is Mr. Gerson's native language.
Scott Shaw Matthews is an actor who was last seen in New York in The Scales. Other credits include, Andre's Mother, by Terrence McNally, and Beautiful Dreamer. In Regional Theatre he has performed the role of Cowboy in I'm Not Rappaport. Recently he has been featured in a number of short and independent films. He is a student of Vivian Matalon.
Nahma Sandrow is an independent scholar of theatre history and renowned author of Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater, as well as God, Man & Devil, a book of her translations of Yiddish plays, both published by Syracuse University Press; and Surrealism: Theatre, Arts, Ideas, a Harper & Row Torchbook reissued by IUniverse. She has written two award-winning off-Broadway musicals based on Yiddish theater material: Kuni-Leml and Vagabond Stars.
Morton Wolkowitz’s theatrical producing credits include Donnybrook, music and lyrcs by Johnny Burke and starring Eddie Foy Jr; The Enemy is dead starring Linda Lavin; My Astonishing Self starring Donal Donnelly; Stomp; Stomp Out Loud; The Unexepected Man starring Alan Bates and Eileen Atkins; One Shot One Kill starring Michaeal Cullen; From Door to Door starring Anita Keal; Tryst starring Amelia Campbell and Maxwell Caulfield. Mr. Wolkowitz has enjoyed success in the financial and corporate worlds.
Mr. Wolkowitz is an avid supporter of many charities and the "Not-For-Profit" realms of theatre. He is thrilled to be involved in the re-invention of Yiddish theatre.