Two waitresses were fired and a Temple University student was suspended after an antisemitic incident this weekend at Barstool’s Center City bar.
A video that surfaced and went viral Sunday showed a server holding up a sign – ordered as part of the establishment’s bottle service – with “F— the Jews” written on it. The clip was shared by StopAntisemitism, an organization that raises awareness about anti-Jewish hate, and appears to be pulled from an Instagram story posted by an account named mokhan3.0.
The bar, located on Sansom Street, is affiliated with Barstool Sports, a media company founded and owned by Dave Portnoy, who is Jewish. He took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his outrage.
Portnoy announced that the waitresses had been terminated, and claimed that they did not consult management about whether to fulfill the order for the sign.
He told his audience that he spoke to “both of the culprits,” whom he referred to as Temple students. Instead of exposing them, and possibly ruining their lives, he said he wants to send them to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp, as a “teaching moment.”
“To me, that’s a fair outcome of this event,” Portnoy said in a video-taped “emergency press conference.”
Barstool Sansom Street said the staff involved in the incident were “acting outside the scope of their duties” and fired following an investigation.
“Unfortunately, several employees ignored all of their training and the organization’s written policies regarding our zero tolerance policy for discrimination and hate,” the bar said in a statement. “Instead, the employees complied with a customer’s request for a sign in connection with ordering bottle service.”
Temple President Stephen Fry, in a message to the university community, said the school has identified one student “who is believed to have been involved,” though the college did not release the person’s name. The individual has been placed on interim suspension, he added.
Any other students found to have participated will be disciplined “up to and including expulsion,” Fry continued.
“In the strongest terms possible, let me be clear: antisemitism is abhorrent,” he said. “It has no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university.”
Antisemitic incidents have risen sharply following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.
A major focus has been college campuses, where there has been a groundswell of pro-Palestine activism. The Trump administration, amid a crackdown on the those involved in demonstrations, has warned Temple and dozens of other schools that they could lose federal funding unless more is done to safeguard Jewish students.
The Anti-Defamation League recently reported 465 instances of harassment, vandalism and assault targeting the Jewish community in Pennsylvania in 2024, up 18% from the year prior.
“We cannot let vile antisemitic messages become normalized, especially at a time when antisemitism is at record levels in the U.S.,” the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy organization, said Monday in response to the Barstool incident. “Zero tolerance can be the only response to any form of hatred and bigotry.”
