Who

The son of real estate developer Charles Kushner, Jared is also the proud owner of the Upper East Side's favorite weekly, the New York Observer.

Backstory

Jared is the son of Charles Kushner, who inherited a real estate firm from his father and built the New Jersey-based concern into one of the largest development firms in the region over the course of the 1970s and '80s. (Kushner Companies now controls 7,500 apartments and 6.5 million square feet of commercial space in the Northeast.) Raised in Livingston as the second-oldest of Charles's four kids, Jared attended an Orthodox Jewish high school in Paramus before heading to Harvard (under rather dubious circumstances) and then enrolling in a joint JD/MBA program at NYU.

It wasn't until 2004, though, that the Kushner family landed squarely in the media spotlight. An investigation into Charlie's campaign contributions to New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey set off a messy family feud, with Charlie facing off against his brother and sister and ultimately being charged with attempting to compromise witnesses in a federal investigation. In 2005, he was sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign contributions. But in 2006 Jared emerged from the shadows as the new, friendlier face of the Kushner family, making headlines when, just three years out of college, still a grad student at NYU, and with no media experience to speak of, he announced he was buying the Observer for $10 million from founder Arthur Carter.

Of note

Jared's purchase of the Observer followed years of speculation about the paper's fate. Carter had been seeking to sell off the money-losing weekly for years, and just a few months before the Kushners announced their purchase, Carter had been in active discussions with Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff. The Tribeca trio eventually walked—rumor has it they weren't willing to meet Carter's asking price—but he soon found a new buyer in the Kushner clan. 25-year-old Jared—who was earning his JD/MBA student at NYU at the time—proudly announced that he'd come up with the $10 million purchase price himself, thanks to the real estate investments he'd made while attending Harvard. (Jared didn't bother to explain just how he came up with the millions to invest in the Cambridge real estate market when he was all of 21, or why all of Charlie's kids were given stakes in the paper.) But if the Kushners were hoping to redirect public attention from père to fils, mission accomplished: In the aftermath of the acquisition, fresh-faced Jared became a sensation in media circles and the subject of half a dozen admiring profiles.

Since taking over the paper, Kushner has made some changes. Although Peter Kaplan remains at the helm as editor-in-chief, it's been restyled it as a tabloid, coverage of the real estate market has been beefed up, the website redesigned, and Kushner launched Politicker.com, a site dedicated to "inside politics for political insiders." Thus far his efforts have yielded mixed results. While traffic to the site has been boosted, there have also been a series of departures by longtime staff members. Some have also noticed the tone of the paper shift: Once known for its biting wit, the Observer is a bit more sedate these days, with an expanded real estate section at the back dedicated to publishing fawning profiles of real estate players like Michael Shvo.

Jared—who finished up his JD/MBA in 2007—seems to have bigger plans than just operating a tiny weekly paper. In 2008, he had discussions with Cablevision's Jim Dolan about a joint bid for Newsday. (Jared backed out when the price went too high.) He's also become increasingly involved in his father's real estate empire and now often represents the company in public, which isn't at all surprising given his father's reputation. When Kushner the elder purchased 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion, it was Jared who spoke to the press. He's also focused the company's attention on the Manhattan market, making a series of real estate purchases in places like Harlem.

Campaign trail

Jared's political contributions date back a decade. He forked over $2,000 to Frank Lautenberg's Senate bid as far back as 1992 when he was just 11. (His allowance money, no doubt.) He seems to have learned from his father's mistakes, however: He didn't make a single donation during the 2008 election cycle.

Personal

Kushner dated Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, for more than a year before they split up in early 2008. (Rumor has it that it was Ivanka's shiksa status that was one of the major factors in the break-up.) They reconciled, however, during the summer of 2008 and Ivanka is now reportedly converting to Judaism. Prior to Ivanka, Jared dated Laura Englander, the daughter of hedge fund billionaire Israel Englander. He lives in a two-bedroom rental at 300 Mercer Street.

Family ties

Jared isn't the only Kushner with an eye on a media empire: younger brother Josh founded Scene magazine while a student at Harvard, which was pitched as a Vanity Fair for the Cambridge set.

True story

Jared's application to Harvard is discussed in detail in Dan Golden's 2006 book, The Price of Admission, which explores the system by which the extremely wealthy donate millions to universities to secure admission for their kids. Cited as one of the most egregious cases of pay-for-play, Golden revealed that Charles pledged $2.5 million to Harvard to gain admission for Jared, despite the fact his academic record hardly warranted it. "There was no way anybody thought he would on the merits get into Harvard. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought, for sure, there was no way this was going to happen," Jared's high school English teacher told the author.