Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy is furious over an incident at one of his establishments in which an antisemitic sign was displayed over the weekend.
Portnoy’s bar in Philadelphia was slammed online when one of its marquees read “F*** the Jews,” which was captured in several videos. This comes weeks after President Donald Trump’s executive order on measures to combat antisemitism.
Portnoy said he wants the people involved to learn from their actions and will send them to visit the former Nazi concentration camps in Poland.
“The first knee-jerk reaction was, like, just to punish them and ruin their lives, whoever was involved in this, as much as possible, and make them regret it. And consequences for their actions and the people at the bar, make sure anybody who allowed this or was part of it to be fired. They still were,” Portnoy said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom on Monday. “But the thought was maybe if they could learn more about the history and why this is so offensive, and visit Poland and the concentration camps in Auschwitz. You could make a teaching moment out of it.”
The sign was brought to the bar by Temple University student Mo Khan, who has since been suspended.
Portnoy acknowledged that the two employees were 20-year-olds but lamented that he’s seen more antisemitism online in the last year and a half than he has over the last 20 years working in social media. He dismissed criticisms that suggested he was “sending them on a paid vacation.”
“I don’t know anybody who would love to do a no-frills trip to Poland to have what should really be a saddening and disheartening teaching moment. If that doesn’t get through to these kids, guess what? Nothing will,” Portnoy said. “To me, it was the best option. In no way do I think this is some win for them like they are going to Ibiza or something to be clubbing. They are going on a very strict regimen, a tailored visit to one of the worst atrocities of mankind.”
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Days before the November election, Portnoy announced he would be voting for Trump. At the time, universities, including Columbia and Harvard, were under scrutiny for not punishing students involved in antisemitic protests enough. Portnoy has a history of speaking out against these universities.