Early Life
Stewart was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz in New York City, to a Jewish family. He and his older brother, Larry, who is currently Chief Operating Officer of NYSE Euronext (parent company of the New York Stock Exchange), grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where they attended Lawrence High School. Jon's mother, Marian (née Laskin), is an educational consultant and teacher. His father, Donald, was a professor of physics at The College of New Jersey from 2001 through 2008; he now teaches an online course at Thomas Edison State College. Jon's parents were divorced when Stewart was eleven years old, and Stewart no longer has any contact with his father. According to Stewart, he was subjected to anti-Semitic bullying as a child. He describes himself in high school as "very into Eugene Debs and a bit of a leftist."
Stewart graduated in 1984 from The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where he played on the soccer team and initially majored in chemistry before switching to psychology. While at William & Mary, Stewart became a brother of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. After college, Stewart held numerous jobs; a contingency planner for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, a contract administrator for the City University of New York, a puppeteer for children with disabilities, a caterer, a busboy, a shelf stocker at Woolworth's, and a bartender at the Franklin Corner Tavern, a local blue-collar bar. In college, Stewart was friends with future Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is the only politician to have received campaign donations from Stewart.
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