That picture is from a shul in Elad. The gabbai of this Haredi shul came up with a solution to the global problem of people bringing their cellphones into shul and using them to chat or work or browse and use social media rather than pray and pay attention during lectures. The gabbai spoke to people asking what it would take to get them to stop using their cellphones in shul and after trying other ideas, he came up with this plan - he installed cubbies in the shul, with both locks on each cubby and phone chargers inside each cubby. So now people feel comfortable leaving their phone in a locked cubby and know that it is charging while they are praying or learning rather than draining.
According to Behadrei, so far so good. People are actually using them as intended. I guess the test is over time if people will continue to use them or not. Other shuls should probably adopt a similar solution. Even if it does not solve the issue 100%, it looks like it can decrease dramatically the amount of cellphone usage in shul.
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These lockers have been used all over the world for several years. I am surprised you have not heard of it until now.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.localjewishnews.com/2015/03/12/shul-phone-lockers/
What a cool idea - I guess that's thinking 'out-of-the-box'!
ReplyDelete. . Mr. Cubber is right: Here in America, plenty of Shuls have such cubbies for cell-phones (and with a charger inside each cubby). . Also in Bais Medrash Govoha and many similar Yeshivas.
ReplyDelete