Sunday saw a controversy emerge over a “F*** The Jews” sign at Barstool Sports’ Philadelphia sports bar.
The incident came after a Temple University student, Mo Khan, uploaded an Instagram video of the sign in the bottle service section at the Barstool Sansom Street location. Then, the @StopAntisemites X account picked up the video and tagged Barstool Sports owner and founder Dave Portnoy. Subsequently, Portnoy ranted about how he would “make it [his] life’s f***ing mission to ruin these people.” It seemed like that initially might lead to a mutually agreed resolution, but that’s now off the table.
Portnoy’s initial posts on Sunday saw him detailing his anger over being tied to this sign and the personal investigation he took into the matter. That included communicating with and firing two waitresses, speaking to a figure tagged in the post with a “thank you” who denied involvement and said he wasn’t there, and speaking to the two people who ordered the sign. He then followed up by saying he would pay to send the people who ordered the sign to visit the Holocaust memorial and museum at the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland as a “teaching moment.”
That all took a turn overnight. On Monday, Portnoy first vented about an “ambush” in a 6ABC Action News Philadelphia interview (which has not yet aired, but he provided footage of his interaction with a reporter there, filmed by a Barstool employee). He then followed that up with a video saying Khan (who he had previously cited as one of the people who ordered the sign and as someone he had offered to send to visit Auschwitz) was now claiming no involvement other than as a “citizen journalist” who recorded the sign:
“Both of them are like, ‘Yeah, we did this, and we’re willing to go and try to learn,’ Portnoy began. “…Then, I see a now-deleted, I think it was an Instagram or Snapchat story of one of the kids, Mo Khan, and he has this long speech, we’ll put it in, claiming he was just being a citizen journalist, he was just documenting his life, he had nothing to do with the sign. Had nothing to do with it, didn’t even know what it was, he was just being a citizen journalist. Quite literally a 180 from when I talked to him.
“…I’m like ‘Mo, what’s going on? We need some accountability. Hand up, I did it, I f***ed up, I’m stupid.’ And he’s like ‘Well, I had nothing to do with it. I felt pressured to admit that I had anything to do with it.’ This is the kid who uploaded the video laughing and being like ‘F*** the Jews!’ …I’m like, ‘Hey, a**hole, you f***ing uploaded this to Instagram, I didn’t put your f***ing name out there! Other people got it because you uploaded it to Instagram!'”
The Monday video from Portnoy came after the @StopAntisemites X account posted that Temple suspended Khan for “possible involvement” with the sign. That account also posted an apparent Snapchat post from Khan in February that included an antisemitic caption. In the above video, Portnoy says he asked Khan about the previous post, and Khan said he couldn’t speak to it, but his parents could, and he no longer has that social media platform. Portnoy also says he’s rescinded his offer to pay to send Khan to visit Auschwitz.
The overall situation has led to much social media criticism for Khan, Portnoy, and the wider Barstool brand. It’s also led to apparent academic consequences for Khan. We’ll see where it goes from here, but the “teaching moment” resolution is off the table.