Deborah Mohile Goldberg worked for Birthright Israel, a nonprofit co-founded by Steinhardt, when he asked her if she and a female colleague would like to join him in a threesome, she said. Natalie Goldfein, who was an officer at a small nonprofit that Steinhardt had helped establish, said he suggested in a meeting that they have babies together.
Steinhardt, 78, a retired hedge fund founder, is among an elite cadre of donors who bankroll some of the country’s most prestigious Jewish nonprofits. His foundations have given at least $127 million to charitable causes since 2003, public filings show.
But that generosity has come at a price. Six women said in interviews with The New York Times and ProPublica, and one said in a lawsuit, that Steinhardt asked them to have sex with him, or made sexual requests of them, while they were relying on or seeking his support. He also regularly made comments to women about their bodies and their fertility, according to the seven women and 16 other people who said they were present when Steinhardt made such comments.
“Institutions in the Jewish world have long known about his behavior, and they have looked the other way,” said Katz, 35, a vice president at Hillel International. “No one was surprised when I shared that this happened.”
Hillel confirmed generally that Katz reported the incident but would not comment on specifics.
Steinhardt declined to be interviewed for this article. In a statement, he said he regretted that he had made comments in professional settings through the years “that were boorish, disrespectful, and just plain dumb.” Those comments, he said, were always meant humorously.
“I have never tried to touch any woman or man inappropriately,” Steinhardt said in his statement. Provocative comments, he said, “were part of my schtick since before I had a penny to my name, and I unequivocally meant them in jest. I fully understand why they were inappropriate. I am sorry.”
Through a spokesman, Steinhardt denied many of the specific actions or words attributed to him by the seven women. The spokesman, Davidson Goldin, said Steinhardt had never “seriously, credibly” asked anyone for sex.
A lifelong New Yorker, Steinhardt has given millions to city institutions. But he wields his widest influence in the tight-knit world of Jewish philanthropy. Along with Charles Bronfman, a billionaire heir to the Seagram liquor fortune, Steinhardt founded Birthright Israel, which has sent more than 600,000 young Jews on free trips to Israel.
While Steinhardt has been celebrated for his largess, interviews with dozens of people depicted a man whose behavior went largely unchecked for years because of his status and wealth.
None of the women interviewed by The Times and ProPublica said Steinhardt touched them inappropriately, but they said they felt pressured to endure demeaning sexual comments and requests out of fear that complaining could damage their organizations or derail their careers. Witnesses to the behavior said nothing or laughed along, women said.
“He set a horrifying standard of what women who work in the Jewish community were expected to endure,” said Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, a Jewish scholar. She said Steinhardt suggested that she become his concubine while he was funding her first rabbinical position in the mid-1990s.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg, who was the president of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life for a decade, said he repeatedly rebuked Steinhardt for using belittling language toward both men and women. That tension was a factor in his deciding to leave the job in 2007.
Steinhardt could be harsh with men, but his comments to women focused on their appearance and fertility, Greenberg said. He said that the comments were made in a bantering, not threatening, tone and that he never saw Steinhardt directly proposition anyone. Still, he said, “I understand that the women felt more shaken or threatened than I recognized at the time.”
Hillel International continued to accept donations from Steinhardt until last year, when it hired a law firm to conduct an investigation into his behavior, according to a person familiar with the matter. The investigation, which ended in January, concluded that Steinhardt had sexually harassed Katz and another employee in a separate incident.
Katz said she decided to speak publicly in part because her role in the investigation had become known and she feared possible fallout.
“I want to let other women who went through similar things to know that they are not alone,” Katz said. “And I want organizations, and in particular Jewish organizations who take his money, to consider the impact that’s had on people like me.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.