Leon Wieseltier, the influential Jewish scholar and magazine editor, has been fired from his latest venture following revelations of sexual harassment during his long tenure at the New Republic

“For my offenses against some of my colleagues in the past I offer a shaken apology and ask for their forgiveness,” Wieseltier said in a statement. “The women with whom I worked are smart and good people. I am ashamed to know that I made any of them feel demeaned and disrespected. I assure them that I will not waste this reckoning.” The first issue of Idea, the magazine he was to launch, appeared to be near completion, but its backer, Laurene Powell Jobs, decided to shelve the issue after the revelations and break up the publication. Jobs is the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Tales of Wieseltier’s sexual harassment were circulating among female journalists who have been compiling information about harassers in the profession since the explosion of such stories following the revelations of decades of sexual assault by Jewish movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Chris Hughes, who owned the New Republic for a short period, said in a statement that that he had investigated a harassment complaint from a woman who worked for the management company at the building where the magazine was housed. Wieseltier, who feuded with Hughes, led a walkout in 2014 while Hughes was the owner. Several women described unwanted kisses on the mouth from Wieseltier and sexualized comments about their clothing, among other offenses. Wieseltier, a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books, is a regular on the Jewish lecture circuit, speaking about Israel and Jewish belief systems. He won the 1998 Jewish Book Council Award for nonfiction for “Kaddish,” a study and memoir about the Jewish memorial prayer.