Calm down, Dave Portnoy, and everyone else

Calm down, Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy is the man who owns the Barstool bar in Center City, where a couple of jerks — one identified as a Temple student, the other waiting to be named — posted a “Fuck the Jews” message on a lighted sign in the bar.

Portnoy, who is Jewish, went ballistic, rightfully.

He then fired the two female servers who sort-of cooperated with the alleged students.  

But for the male culprits?

He has offered them a free trip to the Nazi Auschwitz death camp in Poland, and a tour of German death camps, so they can educate themselves. How about the female servers, who were less guilty than the males? No freebies for them?

A free vacation for the culprits? Were you sober when you made the offer, Dave?

Calm down, Dave (who is the millionaire owner of the sports and popular culture company Barstool Sports). 

How about a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., instead? At their expense, along with a knowledgeable tour guide.

Why should they pay?

One has been temporarily suspended by Temple. The other will probably get the same. Temple has said, of course, anti-Semitism is horrible and contrary to the values of the university.

Temple President John Fry can make learning about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust a condition of the students’ readmission, and maybe add some community service, such as providing janitorial services for Hillel, the organization for Jewish students.

Media carried messages of outrage, primarily from the Jewish community. It actually led some newscasts, to my surprise.

Philadelphia police are investigating. It seems like a stretch, but could the jerks be jailed for a hate crime?

Enough is enough. Anti-Semitism is disgusting, but let’s not lose a sense of proportion. If we go ballistic over this, what do we do if someone torches a synagogue, or assaults a Jew?

What should we do?

First, the culprits should be named.

Second, shamed — by their university, their friends, and the community at large.

They did something hateful, something vile, something very wrong, but they caused no physical harm, they defaced no property, they confronted no one.

Third, they should be exposed to the fruit of the tree of anti-Semitism. That can be done in a classroom, and/or by Jewish students, and/or a visit to the Holocaust museum. 

Fourth, they should be given an opportunity to explain, and apologize, if they care to.

Their actions were anti-Semitic, but it was a molehill. We needn’t make a mountain out of it.