Michael H. 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 for more than two decades, 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Steinhardt made such comments.

According to The Times, which headlined the story on the front page of the March 21 issue, and devoted two full pages to it inside the issue, none of the women interviewed said Mr. 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. Witnesses to the behavior said nothing or laughed along, women said.

Mr. Steinhardt has denied the accusations.

The Oscar award program 2019 had hardly begun when Israel took one home. Guy Nattiv and his team accepted the award for Best Live Action Short Film for their movie, Skin. The film examines race by showing a white racist dad getting angry about his son being treated warmly by a black man.

Nattiv told the audience and viewers on national television that his grandparents are Holocaust survivors. “The bigotry they experienced in the Holocaust, we see that everywhere today.” He said he hopes the film can show people how to teach their children “a better way.”

Chicago businessman and philanthropist Theodore Perlman and his wife, Harriette, have donated $25 million to BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) to help support women in their young adult lives. It is one of the largest single gifts in recent Jewish organizational history.

The gift will allow the 95-year-old organization to start a women’s leadership initiative to connect Jewish women through their college and early professional careers with mentorship and training. The initiative is named in honor of Mr. Perlman’s mother, Anita M. Perlman, who founded B’nai B’rith Girls in 1944.

“My mother had the foresight to know, even decades ago, the capabilities of young women and their desire to move into positions of leadership,” said Perlman, 82.

Perlman is the founder of the Havi Group, a firm that supplies chains like McDonald’s, KFC and Subway with packaging and toys, including those found in McDonald’s Happy Meals. [Pictured, Harriette and Theodore Perlman with Noga Hurwitz, one of two teen presidents of BBYO. Photo courtesy of BBYO.]

Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Jewish independent senator from Vermont, officially announced that he will enter the 2020 presidential race. The sheer number of donations that poured in over the next 24 hours was staggering, according to Marketwatch, which reported he raised more than $6 million in the first 24 hours, more than doubling the amount that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) raised in the early hours of her official candidacy. Reportedly around 20 candidates will be vying for the Democratic nomination

Sanders raised about $228 million during the 2016 primary race that ultimately came down to him versus eventual nominee and frontrunner Hillary Clinton.