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Donald and Barbara Jonas

Donald Jonas

Donald Jonas was born in New York City on October 16, 1929. He attended the Horace Mann School and graduated in 1947. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps (1951).

Donald Jonas married his wife Barbara in 1953. They have two children and two grandchildren and have homes in New York, Greenwich, Connecticut and La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

A prominent retail executive, Donald Jonas was founder and Chairman of the Barbara Lynn stores and its successor company, Belscott Retailers, both of which were listed on the American Stock Exchange from 1953 to 1975  He was Co-Founder and Chairman of  Lechters Housewares retail chain from 1973 until he retired in 2001.

Mr. Jonas is former Board Member of Dress Barn apparel retail chain (1988-2004); Kipp Academy Charter School, Bronx, New York (2002-2004); Guggenheim Museum Business Board (1993-1998); American Jewish Congress (1970), and Cancer Care, Inc. (1963).  He is a Trustee and an Honorary Trustee of the Horace Mann School (1968-present).

A concerned philanthropist, he started the Read to Feed Program in New York City public and private schools for Heifer International and remains active with Heifer programs. His pro bono interests include support of educational and medical programs in the Dominican Republic.

Avid collectors of modern art, Donald and Barbara Jonas donated fifteen pieces of art for auction to the Jewish Communal Fund in 2005.  Forty-four million dollars from sale of that art established the Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund.  The Jonas Family Fund focuses their philanthropic giving on nursing, their major focus, as well as on mental health and at-risk youth and families.  Donald Jonas is currently an advisor to the Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board to the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence.


Barbara Jonas

Barbara Jonas graduated from the High School of Performing Arts and Sarah Lawrence College, earned her MSW from Yeshiva University and was a practicing psychotherapist. 

She was Vice Chairman of the Community Services Board of the New York City Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services, a Member of the Institutional Review Board of New York University Medical Center from 1983 to 2005, and is a Member of the Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council.  In 1992, she established the Barbara Jonas Centers for the Study and Treatment of Children at Risk at the Departments of Psychiatry at New York University and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centers. 

Mrs. Jonas is a Trustee Emeritus at the Guggenheim Museum and currently is a Member of the Art and Museum Committee and a former Member of the Board of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation.  She is currently an advisor to the Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board to the Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence.