Howard S. Jonas (born 2 June 1956) is an American businessman, and the founder of

IDT Corporation IDT Corporation (originally standing for International Discount Telecommunications) is a multinational provider of cloud communications, point of sale systems, unified communications, and financial services foreign exchange services for selecte ...

and

Genie Energy Genie Energy Ltd. is an American energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. It is a holding company comprising Genie Retail Energy, Genie Retail Energy International, Genie Energy Services, and Genie Energy Oil and Gas. Michael Stein is t ...

Biography

Jonas graduated from

The Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...

and then received a B.A. in economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1978. Although not raised an

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tran ...

, he funds a range of Orthodox as well as other Jewish causes across the ideological spectrum, and has made major investments in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

as well. It is estimated that 25 to 40 percent of the 5,000 employees at IDT are Orthodox.

Career

Jonas is the founder and has been President of Jonas Media Group since its inception in 1979. In August 1990, Jonas founded IDT Corp. (NYSE: IDT) and has been chairman of the board since its inception. He was

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the company from December 1991 until July 2001, president from December 1991 to September 1996 and treasurer from inception to 2002. Jonas has also been the chairman of the board of directors of IDT Telecom, since December 1999 and a director of IDT Capital, Inc. since September 2004. He was co-chairman of the board of directors of IDT Entertainment, Inc. from November 2004 until August 2006. Since August 2006, Jonas has been a director of Starz Media Holdings, LLC,

Starz Media Starz Distribution, formerly IDT Entertainment from 2003 to 2006 and Starz Media from 2006 to 2013, is an American television production, distribution, and syndication company and the distribution arm of Starz Inc., a subsidiary of Starz Ente ...

, LLC and Starz Foreign Holdings, LLC, each of which is an affiliate of the company. Jonas is also the founder and has been president of Jonas Publishing since its inception in 1979. He was the chairman of the board of directors of

Net2Phone net2phone is a Cloud Communications provider offering cloud based telephony services to businesses worldwide. The company is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation. History net2phone was founded in 1990 by telecom entrepreneur Howard Jonas, the chairma ...

from October 2001 to October 2004, the vice chairman of the board of directors of Net2Phone from October 2004 to June 2006 and has been the chairman since June 2006. Jonas is the founder of

(NYSE: GNE, GNEPRA) and was its chairman since it was spun off from IDT Corporation in October 2011. In addition, he has been a director of IDT Energy since June 2007. In 2013, Genie Energy was granted exclusive oil and gas exploration rights in the southern part of the Golan Heights by the Netanyahu government. Jonas was CEO of Genie Energy from January 2014 until November 2017. In May 2017, the businessman and telecom speculator agreed to sell one of his companies, Straight Path Communications, a long-struggling wireless venture, to Verizon Communications for $3.1 billion. Jonas is chairman of the board and chief executive officer at Rafael Holdings. He has been a director of Rafael Pharmaceuticals since April 2013 and was appointed chairman of the board in April 2016.

Publications

In 2006, Jonas published his second book: ''I'm Not the Boss, I Just Work Here''. An article by Jonas entitled "But Will Good Character Pay My Bills?" appeared in an anthology of articles compiled and edited by Moshe Kaplan in 2008 entitled ''Be a Mensch'',.

Gefen Publishing House Gefen Publishing House () is an English language publishing firm located in Jerusalem, which also has a department in New York City. History Gefen was founded in 1981 by Murray and Hana Greenfield. Its CEO is Ilan Greenfield, son of the founder ...

, He also wrote a book called ''On a Roll''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas, Howard 1956 births Living people 20th-century American Jews Harvard University alumni The Bronx High School of Science alumni American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews