Barstool Sports Owner Sending 2 Employees To Auschwitz After Incident At PA Bar

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A antisemitic hate sign was held up inside a bar owned by Barstool Sports in Philadelphia, sparking a massive reaction online after a video showing employees with the sign was watched by thousands.

Now the owner of Barstool, Dave Portnoy, who is Jewish, has announced he is paying to send the two employees involved to the site of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

The video which circulated around X over the weekend showed a large lit-up sign being held up in the middle of the Barstool Sansom Street bar's dance floor. The sign read "(Expletive) the Jews" in all caps.

"My initial reaction is I'm going to burn these people to the ground, their families, everything," Portnoy said in a social media video which he called an 'emergency press conference.' "The I thought, you know what, maybe that's not the best course of action. Maybe I can use this as a teaching moment."

One of the employees involved is a Temple University student, who has been placed on interim suspension by the school.

"This is deeply disturbing, and it is with profound regret that I must share this news with our community," Temple University President John Fry said in a statement. "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."

Portnoy said he talked to the two employees involved in the incident, and they both agreed to go on the trip to Auschwitz.

"Let's try to turn a hideous incident into maybe a learning experience?" Portnoy added in his video. "As cliche, and very unlike me (that is)."

Temple, meanwhile, said they are still investigating the incident.