*Disclosure: My friend told me about this situation. And since I worked in the tourism industry, this really angered me. Not to mention, my moral compass went berserk. My friends, too. We decided this story needed to be exposed because it’s an ongoing issue within many Facebook groups. *
A Jewish woman visiting Siesta Key went into a Facebook group with nearly 175,000 members and asked two simple questions. What do people do locally for Shabbat, and is there a public swimming pool?
That was it. She didn’t mention Israel, Gaza, politics or anything remotely controversial. She wanted somewhere to observe Shabbat and somewhere to swim, which you’d think would be a fairly safe combination of topics on a page devoted to a Florida beach town.
The responses included references to Jews and ovens, blood libel, accusations about Jews harming children, genocide jokes and people telling Jews they needed to accept Jesus. Because of course they did. Apparently a Jew can’t enter a Facebook conversation in 2026 without someone dragging in several thousand years of antisemitism, even when the subject is literally Shabbat and a swimming pool.
There were decent people in the comments who pushed back and wished her Shabbat Shalom. But an innocent question from a visitor had somehow become permission for strangers to pull out some of the oldest garbage about Jews in circulation. And this was happening on a Facebook page bearing the name of one of Florida’s most famous vacation destinations.
Siesta Beach was named the No. 1 Best Beach in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2026. White quartz sand, clear Gulf water, palm trees and sunsets. The place comes right out of a postcard.
At America’s No. 1 beach, a Jewish visitor…any visitor…should only have to worry about getting burned by the sun, not being told to burn in an oven.
The Facebook group already had rules covering exactly what happened. Members were instructed to “be kind and courteous,” with “no hate speech or bullying,” including degrading comments about religion. There wasn’t much room for interpretation there.
Screenshots of the antisemitic comments were sent to the administrators. One responded promptly, apologized and said she hadn’t seen what was happening. She then explained that the original post would be removed because the group didn’t allow political posts.
Political? The woman asked about Shabbat and a swimming pool.
Asking where to observe Shabbat is no more political than asking where the local mosque is, where to catch Sunday Mass, or when the next CAIR meeting is. Being Jewish isn’t a political position, and asking where to spend Shabbat doesn’t suddenly become political because other people decide to show up in the comments with oven jokes.
There was also the inconvenient question of who had actually violated the group’s rules. It wasn’t the Jewish woman. The administrator was asked whether the people making the antisemitic comments would be removed under the group’s stated hate-speech policy. There was no further response, and the post disappeared. The people who attacked her apparently did not.
The following day, another post was generating plenty of discussion in the same group. Someone had crossed out “Gulf of Mexico” and replaced it with “Gulf of America,” and the comments went exactly where you’d expect them to go: politics.
That post is still there.
Nobody expects the administrators of a Facebook group approaching 175,000 members to catch every ugly comment the moment someone types it. But these comments had been brought directly to an administrator’s attention. At that point, the decision was made to remove the post about Shabbat because it was “political,” even as an actual political discussion remained on the page.
That’s quite the moderation policy. Do you hear my eyeballs rolling?
It also taps into something Jews have become all too familiar with: the idea that simply existing publicly as a Jew is somehow a political act. Mention Shabbat, and Jews get called “baby killers.” Wear a Star of David—hello, colonizer, our old friend. Object or respond in any way, and that’s met with a gif of a “Victim Card”.
A woman looking for somewhere to observe Shabbat while she’s on vacation isn’t issuing any type of geopolitical statement. She’s literally just wondering where she can celebrate Shabbat.
A Facebook group called “Siesta Key” isn’t Siesta Key. With nearly 175,000 members, the group will include locals, seasonal residents, tourists, and people who may live nowhere near Florida. The people who made those comments don’t represent an entire community, and in no way should they be allowed to.
But this page is built around a tourism destination, and that comes with some responsibility. I worked in tourism. The entire point is to welcome visitors, answer their questions, and help them enjoy the place they plan on touring. A woman asking about Shabbat and a public pool is exactly the kind of visitor question a page like this should be able to handle.
Once again, it needs to be said…being Jewish isn’t political. Asking a question about the area isn’t political. Asking where to observe Shabbat isn’t even a little bit political. The people who turned her question into an opportunity for antisemitic abuse were the problem. So do what any responsible Facebook group moderator should do...delete the trolls.
If a page that size is too large for the current team to moderate, add moderators. What you don’t do is remove a perfectly reasonable question because other people acted like aholes. That’s a crappy way to run a tourism page and an even crappier way to welcome someone planning to spend money in Florida.
Because nothing says “Welcome to Siesta Key” quite like being called a baby killer.
Siesta Key has gorgeous white sand, sparkling turquoise water, and the most gorgeous sunsets covered.
Maybe it could add a little Shabbat Shalom to the welcome.
