This story was originally published by the Riverfront Times and is published here with full permission. Read the original story here.
A man who previously worked as a teacher at St. Louis area schools was put on blast this weekend for allegedly making an antisemitic comment on the RFT’s Instagram page — but he says someone else made the account to impersonate him.
Dylan Salata was the subject of a post from @StopAntisemites, an account on X that in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel has been working overtime to expose people tearing down fliers posted in solidarity with the hostages as well as other acts of anti-Jewish hate.
But Salata has since reached out to the RFT to say that he is the victim of someone impersonating him on the social media platform. As evidence, he notes the account making the offending posts was only created in January 2023 and in the 11 months since has changed its handle six times.
The account uses both Salata’s full name and that of the Lindbergh school district, his previous employer — and though Salata’s LinkedIn still showed him working at Lindbergh, both Salata and the district confirm that he hasn’t been a teacher there for years.
Salata says he reported the post himself via his actual Instagram account.
“What’s happened is that someone has impersonated me on Instagram to make these comments on the RFT’s Instagram page,” he said.
Dylan Salata is a teacher in St. Louis, Missouri.
Under a food post announcing the arrival of a Jewish deli in town, Salata alludes to Jews running/owning the media, the government and now the delis. When an Instagram user called out his vile antisemitism, he atrociously… pic.twitter.com/jPToYg1Xc8
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 19, 2023
The post that was put on blast by @StopAntisemites was made earlier this month when, seemingly without irony, someone using Salata’s name decried the fact that Jews were taking over “our delicatessens” in a comment beneath a Riverfront Times Instagram post about Ben Poremba’s Deli Divine.
The text of the post read “Deli Divine Brings St. Louis Jewish Deli Fare Good Enough for Bubbie” in front of some pretty good-looking pastrami.
The account @dylansalatalindbergh wrote, “First our media, then our government and now our delicatessens?” When another user challenged the antisemitic comment, the account purportedly belonging to Salata said, “Don’t drop you kippah.”
Someone using the same account left a racist comment on a different RFT Instagram post, this one aimed at Kim Gardner. (This one suggested the former Circuit Attorney has “hard R energy” — a way of suggesting the n-word with its most offensive ending, without actually spelling it out and getting flagged by comment moderation systems.)
The @dylansalatalindbergh Instagram account has since been deleted, as has the real Dylan Salata’s LinkedIn account, which @StopAntisemites tweeted out over the weekend.
Screenshots of the LinkedIn account suggested that Salata worked for Clayton schools and Jefferson City schools for one year each before coming to Lindbergh. The LinkedIn bio claimed that he had been a Lindbergh employee for eight years.
When asked who might be impersonating him, Salata says, “My thought is that it’s not somebody that I know. Because people that I’m close with … know that I don’t work for that school district anymore.”
He adds that in his “limited interaction on Twitter” he’s expressed support for a ceasefire and that perhaps that motivated someone to make him appear like an antisemite, though he says that is only a guess.
Beth Johnston, the chief communications officer for Lindbergh Schools, tells the RFT that it has been over five years since Salata worked for the district.
“The comments don’t reflect the district, obviously,” she says, adding that she reached out to the Deli Divine herself to let them know that Salata hadn’t worked for the school for a number of years.
The school sent out a statement this morning to students’ families informing them of the posts, saying, “our school district has zero tolerance for antisemitic, hateful or discriminatory comments of any kind.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include an interview with Dylan Salata and the evidence he gathered about the account’s origin. Visit RFT.com.
