Is Jan Koum Jewish?

Yes, Jan Koum is Jewish. Jan Koum is the founder of WhatsApp, the mobile application that was purchased in February 2014 by Facebook.

According to Wikipedia, Jan Koum grew up in a village outside Kiev in Ukraine. He moved with his mother and grandmother to Mountain View, California in 1992,where a social support program helped the family to get a small two-bedroom apartment, at the age of 16. His father had intended to join the family later, but finally remained in Ukraine. At first Koum's mother worked as a babysitter, while he himself worked as a cleaner at a grocery. By the age of 18 he became interested in programming. He enrolled at San Jose State University and simultaneously worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester.

In 1997, Jan Koum was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer, shortly after he met Brian Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester. Over the next nine years, they worked at Yahoo. In September 2007 Koum and Acton left Yahoo and took a year off, traveling around South America and playing ultimate frisbee. Both applied, and failed, to work at Facebook. In January 2009, he bought an iPhone and realized that the then seven-month old App Store was about to spawn a whole new industry of apps. He visited his friend Alex Fishman and the two talked for hours about Koum’s idea for an app over tea at Fishman’s kitchen counter. Koum almost immediately chose the name WhatsApp because it sounded like “what’s up,” and a week later on his birthday, Feb. 24, 2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California.

Is Mark Cuban Jewish?

Mark Cuban is Jewish. The American businessman, investor, and philanthropist was born on July 31, 1958. Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Shirley and Norton Cuban. He grew up in the affluent suburb of Mount Lebanon, in a Jewish working-class family. The surname "Cuban" was shortened from "Chabenisky" when his Russian grandparents landed on Ellis Island. His father was an automobile upholsterer.

Mark Cuban is most well known for being the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks. He also owns Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network AXS TV. He is also a "shark" investor on the television series Shark Tank. In 2011, Cuban wrote an e-book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, in which he chronicles his life experiences in business and sports.

Cuban attended Mount Lebanon High School. During his senior year of high school Cuban enrolled as a full-time student at the University of Pittsburgh. After one year at the University of Pittsburgh, he transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.

In September 2002, Cuban married Tiffany Stewart in Barbados. Their first daughter, Alexis Sofia, was born on September 25, 2005; their second daughter, Alyssa, was born in 2007. The Cubans also have a son born in early 2010. The family lives in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas, in a 24,000-square-foot mansion.

Is Aaron Levie Jewish?

Aaron Levie is a Jew. The co-founder and CEO of Box is Jewish. Aaron Levie was born in 1985 in Seattle, Washington to Ben and Karyn Levie. He grew up in Seattle and attended Mercer Island High School, part of the Mercer Island School District in Washington. His family are members of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle.

After graduating from high school, he went on to attend the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California before taking a leave of absence in 2005 to found Box, the enterprise cloud company worth over a billion dollars. Aaron Levie has written numerous articles on disruptive innovation in the technology industry.

Is Aaron Swartz Jewish?

Aaron Swartz was Jewish. Aaron Swartz was the technologist and computer programmer who helped develop code that created the RSS feed  as a teenager. Aaron was born November 8, 1986 to Robert and Susan Swartz. He had two younger brothers Noah and Ben. His partner was Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, the Executive Director and Founder of Sum Of Us.

According to the NY Times, Aaron Swartz's uncle said that he had apparently hanged himself, and that a friend of Mr. Swartz’s had discovered the body. Aaron’s funeral will be held on Tuesday, January 15 at Central Avenue Synagogue, 874 Central Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois.

The NY TImes reported that, "At 14, Mr. Swartz helped create RSS, the nearly ubiquitous tool that allows users to subscribe to online information. He later became an Internet folk hero, pushing to make many Web files free and open to the public. But in July 2011, he was indicted on federal charges of gaining illegal access to JSTOR, a subscription-only service for distributing scientific and literary journals, and downloading 4.8 million articles and documents, nearly the entire library. Charges in the case, including wire fraud and computer fraud, were pending at the time of Mr. Swartz’s death, carrying potential penalties of up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines."

It had been reported that Swartz suffered from depression and had contemplated suicide in the past. "In a talk in 2007, Mr. Swartz described having had suicidal thoughts during a low period in his career. He also wrote about his struggle with depression, distinguishing it from sadness."