A saga unfolded on Dave Portnoy’s social media channels over the last two days as he raged over an antisemitic sign at one of his bars, pledged to send the perpetrators on an all-expenses-paid tour of Auschwitz and then, after a reversal, doxxed one of them and withdrew the offer.
The Barstool Sports media mogul, who is Jewish, isn’t the only one exacting retribution over the incident. The Temple University students who ordered a sign with their drinks reading “F— the Jews” at a Barstool-affiliated sports bar in Philadelphia are also facing consequences from their school.
At least one has been suspended.
The saga began when a viral video showed a waitress carrying the Barstool-branded sign with the antisemitic slur through Barstool Sansom Street on Saturday night. What unfolded afterward is a case study in contemporary discourse about antisemitism — with a media personality who has himself repeatedly been accused of hate speech now trying to address an incident of bigotry on his turf.
“I’m, like, trying to make this a teachable moment, throw a lifeline,” Portnoy said late Monday in his fourth video on the incident in under 36 hours. “Maybe if you actually learn a life lesson, maybe if people watch you go to Poland and seem like you changed, this gets behind you. But now, no. I’m not going to send him now.”
Portnoy’s manospheric brand revolves around being an unapologetic and unfiltered expletive-laden everyman. Barstool Sports, and Portnoy himself, have developed reputations for encouraging lewd behavior. He has been accused of having violent and degrading sex with multiple women and of encouraging “reckless” sports gambling habits. He has also been recorded using the N-word and other racist and misogynistic language in the past.
He was not present for the bar incident but learned about it from the video alongside his fans — and critics. As news of the incident spread, Portnoy’s reactions evolved from raw outrage to moderation to defensiveness and back to outrage.
“I’ve been shaking, I’ve been so f—ing mad for the last two hours,” he said in an “emergency press conference” posted to social media Sunday afternoon. “I’m going to f—ing make it my life f—ing mission to ruin these people, like, I’m coming to your throat. I’m never ending.”
He claimed one of the perpetrators had insisted he was not antisemitic. “You want to take antisemitism classes?” he said in the video. “You want to do whatever? You make it feel right. I don’t need your f—ing tears.”
In another “emergency press conference” posted less than two hours later, he took a calmer tone, announcing the Auschwitz trip and saying he hoped to use the incident as a “teaching moment.”
He added that he was in touch with “the Krafts, who run the anti-hate group” — presumably a reference to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is also Jewish, and Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
“The more I thought about it, it’s like, these are young fucking morons who did this,” Portnoy said. “They’re drunk. Like, do you really want to ruin somebody’s life?”
He was less charitable to the female servers involved in the incident.
“The two waitresses who worked at our place, fired. One of ‘em [is] so dumb, Kelly, just the dumbest human I’ve ever talked to, and I don’t know if she thought she was making a political statement,” he said. “Those two girls are fired.”
The saga was far from over. On Monday, Portnoy posted another angry video, this time lashing out at a reporter whom he called a “f—ing asshole” for asking him if he believed his brand had contributed to “a culture of harassment” leading to incidents like the one in Philadelphia.
“Here’s what I would say is causing that kind of environment,” he told the reporter in a video he posted to social media. “All of these colleges who let Jewish kids get harassed on campus 24-7.”
Then, later in the day, came a plot twist. A Temple student who Portnoy said initially “took accountability,” seemed to then perform an about-face. In a fourth video, Portnoy said he discovered a now-unavailable Instagram statement in which the student, who posted the video of the antisemitic sign to Instagram, claimed to be acting as a “citizen journalist” who was unconnected with the sign.
The statement, which Portnoy posted, said, “I do not support the awful message contained in that sign” and said its author had faced “serious threats to my safety” since the saga began.
Portnoy said the student and his parents then got on a recorded call with Portnoy, and the student said he had been suspended. In the video Monday afternoon, Portnoy said the student’s full name and flashed his photo on screen.
“I’m like, ‘Hey asshole, you f—ing uploaded this to instagram,” Portnoy said. “You had a good laugh about it.”
A range of antisemitism watchdogs also called attention to the student, whom Portnoy and others identified as Mohammad or Mo Khan. They included the group StopAntisemitism, which endorses a “name-and-shame” approach to responding to antisemitism, as well as mainstream groups such as the American Jewish Committee. Khan was also identified in an online fundraiser announced on Monday that said it aimed to help him contest his suspension and clear his name.
“Mohammed made mistakes—he attended a bar, perhaps trusted the wrong crowd—but he is not a bigot,” the fundraiser page says. “He’s a student who deserves the chance to prove his innocence. Let’s ensure hate is met with accountability, but accusations are met with evidence.”
A LinkedIn account belonging to someone with the same name and a profile on a Temple University website were both taken down, and the Instagram account that first posted the video, mokhan3.0, went private.
Portnoy rejected the idea that the student was falsely accused, adding that people had sent him a screenshot of the student making another antisemitic joke.
“This kid wouldn’t even admit he did it,” he said. “Do you think everyone’s stupid? You’re a citizen journalist? F—, I’m sorry man, I tried to throw you a lifeline and make something out of this, and you’re now a citizen journalist?”
In its own statement, Temple said that multiple students were “involved in an antisemitic incident at an off-campus location” and that it had identified one, which it did not name, who would be placed on interim suspension. Any additional students identified by the school would also face discipline, the school’s president John Fry wrote.
The fraternity Kappa Delta Rho also said an unnamed student was a member and that it would be investigating, adding, “To be clear, our organization firmly opposes all forms of hate, which have no place in our fraternity.” Local police are also investigating the incident, a spokesperson told local news Sunday.
Philadelphia’s Anti-Defamation League thanked Temple’s president for taking action against the student. In a separate statement, the ADL office added that it was “getting in touch with the bar’s management.”
The Barstool founder has drawn praise from some for his swift and intense reaction. In the comments on the videos, the Republican Jewish Coalition thanked Portnoy “for taking this seriously.” Debra Messing and other Jewish celebrities and influencers also thanked him. Even some of his critics said in social media posts that they were pleased to see him acting swiftly and distressed by the suggestion that he was to blame for antisemitism at his bar.
By Monday evening, Portnoy, who often seems to relish confrontation in his videos, said he was tiring of the ordeal.
“All right, another update from the sign situation at Barstool Sansom Street,” he said at the beginning of his latest video, “which I am so sick of dealing with, but obviously going to deal with.”
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