But the behavior described by the women in interviews went well beyond matchmaking.
Ms. Goldberg, the director of communications for Birthright from 2001 to 2010, said she was used to Mr. Steinhardt being “inappropriate.” Still, she was shocked when Mr. Steinhardt suggested that she and a co-worker at a donor reception in Jerusalem join him in an intimate encounter.
Ms. Goldberg recalled Mr. Steinhardt asking for a threesome; her former colleague, who asked not to be identified, recalled Mr. Steinhardt inviting her and Ms. Goldberg to leave with him, but did not recall his referring to a threesome.
“We were working Joes, pretty vulnerable, and here he is with all his authority, coming over and propositioning us,” Ms. Goldberg, who is now 48, said.
Mr. Steinhardt’s spokesman called the account “simply not true.”
Two women who worked at a small Jewish nonprofit recalled Mr. Steinhardt using similar language in 2008. They both said that during a meeting at his office to make a pitch for funding, Mr. Steinhardt suggested that they all take a bath together, in what he called a “ménage à trois.” One of the women, the executive director of the organization, asked that her identity be withheld because she feared that people on her board would pull their donations if she spoke publicly.
Her former colleague asked that her identity be withheld to protect the executive director.
Mr. Steinhardt did not recall this meeting, his spokesman said.
Ms. Goldberg said she believed her encounter took place in 2005. She said that soon after, she shared the story with Shimshon Shoshani, who was then Birthright’s chief executive. Mr. Shoshani, who later became the director-general of Israel’s Education Ministry and is now retired, said in an interview that he did not recall Ms. Goldberg’s allegations. He said he had heard “rumors” that Mr. Steinhardt had made inappropriate comments, but said he never heard Mr. Steinhardt make such comments.
He praised Mr. Steinhardt for his commitment to Birthright. “I appreciate him very, very much. Even if there were some comments, about sex, about women, I wouldn’t take it seriously,” Mr. Shoshani said, “because he made important decisions in other areas concerning Birthright.”
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