In 1929, following engagements in Cologne and Prague, Hans Wilhelm Steinberg was appointed General Music Director at the opera house in Frankfurt am Main. He was dismissed from this post in May 1933 because he was Jewish.

Steinberg initially remained in Frankfurt and became a co-founder of the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (Cultural League of German Jews) in the Rhine/Main district, which was formed in the autumn of 1933 with the Kulturbund in Berlin as its model. He was particularly committed to the formation of a symphony orchestra in order to provide career prospects for Jewish musicians who had been dismissed from their posts. He directed this orchestra until the summer of 1936, after which he spent a few months with the Kulturbund orchestra in Berlin before emigrating to Switzerland at the end of 1936.

Steinberg had been involved in the preparations for founding a symphony orchestra in Palestine while he was still working in Frankfurt and Berlin. In the 1936/37 season, he undertook several engagements in Tel Aviv as a guest conductor. However, this did not lead to the more intensive cooperation which would have enabled him to emigrate to Palestine. Arturo Toscanini, who had met him in Tel Aviv, invited Steinberg to join the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York as his assistant. In June 1938, Hans Wilhelm Steinberg emigrated again, this time to the USA.

After spending time in San Francisco and Buffalo, William Steinberg became the director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, a post which he held from 1952 until shortly before his death. In 1958, he refused an offer to become the General Music Director of the Städtische Oper Berlin (City Opera Berlin).

Further reading:
Hirsch, Lily E. William Steinberg. In: Maurer-Zenck, Claudia/Petersen, Peter (Hg.): Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg 2008 (https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003094)