StopAntisemitism’s X account shared a disturbing video on May 4 from the Barstool Sansom Street bar in Philadelphia. The footage, seemingly a screen recording of an Instagram story, showed a sign “F*** the Jews” before the camera unsteadily turned to a crowd of onlookers. Some reacted with visible shock. Others laughed. One person remarked, “crazy.” At least one voice chillingly echoed the sentiment: “F*** ’em.”
This vile incident and the troubling response that followed offer critical insight into the current state of antisemitism in America.
StopAntisemitism tagged Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy in its post. Within two hours, Portnoy responded with a video on X expressing anger and disbelief. He proposed what appeared to be a constructive solution: Offering the alleged perpetrators an educational trip to Auschwitz to confront the historical reality and horrors of antisemitism.
That, however, was not the end of the story.
The fallout was immediate. Two Barstool employees connected to the incident were fired, and Temple University suspended student Mo Khan, who had posted the original video.
Portnoy later stated on X that Khan had recanted an earlier admission of involvement, instead claiming to be merely a “citizen journalist.” As a result, Portnoy rescinded his Auschwitz offer. While we can’t know what was said in private, Khan made his perspective public on X and a fundraising platform.
On his fundraising page, Khan cast himself as “the real victim.” He dismissed the phrase “F*** the Jews” as three words on a bar sign, and cited a series of defensive claims: “I’m a 21-year-old college kid. I’m not a public figure,” adding that it was merely an “edgy joke.” He also lamented being a casualty of “cancel culture.”
More troubling, however, was Khan’s attempt to rationalize the antisemitic slur itself. He argued that the sign was “provocative because it reminds people of the acts of injustice israel [sic] is perpetrating around the world.”
He accused Portnoy and the wider Jewish community of misplaced outrage, writing: “Frankly, they’re more concerned about destroying my life than they are with stopping a genocide that is blowing up children. That sign didn’t kill any Jews—nor did my reporting of it—but their support of Israel kills 1000s of people every single day.”
In facing public backlash, Khan invoked what sociologist David Hirsh has termed the “Livingstone Formulation,” a rhetorical tactic in which accusations of antisemitism are dismissed as efforts to silence criticism of Israel. Casting himself as a victim of censorship, Khan claimed that the outrage over his actions was an attempt to suppress his political views.
Predictably, Khan found supporters among far-right antisemites such as Nick Fuentes, Lucas Gage and Stew Peters, the latter of whom hosted an “emergency press conference” with Khan, railing against so-called “Jewish supremacy.”
The hatred extended to Khan’s fundraising page. While many of the posts have since been deleted, either by Khan or the platform, comments—ranging from Holocaust denial to conspiracy theories and religious slurs—revealed how the far-right, far-left, Islamist and Christian fundamentalist antisemites have all found common cause with Khan, uniting around a shared hatred of the Jewish people.
This was not a murky or ambiguous episode. It was blatant hatred. Yet even in the face of that sign, we saw denial, deflection and disturbing attempts at justification. It’s all part of a broader trend. As antisemitism becomes more normalized, particularly among younger generations, as poll after poll has shown, those who promote it increasingly shield themselves by claiming they are merely criticizing Israel.
If someone can excuse “F*** the Jews” as a political message about Israel, then anything Jewish—people, institutions, symbols—becomes fair game. This is not criticism. This is hate. If we allow such rhetoric to go unchallenged, and if society is slowly desensitized to the language of antisemitism, the consequences will be dire.
There must be no confusion here. No equivocation. No shielding bigotry in freedom of speech. This hate must be named, confronted and eradicated—not only to protect Jews, but to safeguard any society that refuses to let hatred define its future.