The Jewish owner of a nightclub in Philadelphia has promised to take action after members of his staff held up an antisemitic sign on the dance floor of his bar.
Footage posted on social media showed waitresses at the Barstool Sansom Street bar in Philadelphia holding an illuminated antisemitic statement on a giant board on the club’s dancefloor.
The video, which was originally posted to an Instagram story, was picked up by prominent Jewish social media accounts, including @StopAntisemitism, which has over 330,000 followers.
Dave Portnoy, the founder and owner of Barstool Sports, a social media company that owns several bars across the US, addressed the incident in a video on his X account.
In a three minute tirade, Portnoy, 48, said that the staff members who allowed a sign saying ‘f**k the Jews’ to be displayed had already been fired and that he was “shaking” with rage over the incident.
"I'm going to make it my life’s mission to ruin these people,” said Portnoy.
In the video, Portnoy also said: “You think I'm going to put up with this s**t at my bar? So I've been hunting down waitresses, the table who did it, and everything you can name because I want consequences for f***ing actions.”
Portnoy, who has been an advocate against antisemitism since October 7, said that he would find out who was responsible for the sign and force them to “do antisemitism classes” or “whatever it takes to make this right."
The Barstool Sports founder also said that he had spoken to the staff members responsible for the sign, calling them “one of the dumbest f***ing humans I've ever talked to.”
In an update posted two hours later, Portnoy said that he had tracked down the culprits and was sending them to Auschwitz to learn about the Holocaust.
"I've had more hate, more antisemitism in the last year and a half than I've ever had before.
"My initial reaction was like, I'm going to burn these people to the ground, their families, everything.
“And it's like, You know what? Maybe that's not the best course of action. Maybe I can use this as a teaching moment and like before, people just are like, F**k the Jews or any group, let's try to, like, turn a hideous incident into maybe a learning experience.”
"We're going to send these kids to Auschwitz, and they're going to do a tour of the concentration camps and hopefully learn something and maybe their lives aren't ruined and they think twice.”
In a statement on Sunday night, the president of Temple University in Philadelphia, John Fry that that the college would be investigating the incident and had suspended a student believed to have been involved.
He said: “At approximately 3 pm, the university became aware of reports that Temple students were involved in an antisemitic incident at an off-campus location last night. This is deeply disturbing, and it is with profound regret that I must share this news with our community.
“In the strongest terms possible, let me be clear: antisemitism is abhorrent. It has no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university.
“Our Division of Student Affairs is conducting an investigation related to last night’s incident, and they have identified one Temple student who is believed to have been involved. This individual has already been placed on interim suspension.”
Barstool Sansom Street and Dave Portnoy have been approached for comment.
