So, Simon Rocker's community has finally succumbed to the clap! Well, if he'd had the misfortune of visiting my shul - Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue - any time over the past 2-3 years, he'd have shuddered with embarrassment on many occasions, as oblivious guests 'celebrate' the Bar Mitzvah's completion of the Haftarah with a hearty round of applause, leaving the regular shul-goers to hide under our tallitot or behind our chumashim.
What ever happened to a good old "Yisha koach" in such circumstances? Rabbi Brawer has even taken to reminding people before the leining that the upcoming Bar Mitzvah's recitation of the leining or Haftarah is not a concert!
To be honest though, this is just one of a series of cringeworthy 'declines' in shul-going standards in the past few years. Perhaps the worst is the appearance of mobile phones in synagogue. Not content to merely be without their precious mobiles / blackberries / iphones for 2-3 hours of shul, people - 99.9% of time guests to simchas - keep them on, so that they ring during the service. On one occasion in our own shul, the grandfather of the Bar Mitzvah boy even took his phone out to capture his grandson's special moment on camera!
The problem is so horrendous in Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue that guests are now asked to deposit their phones into plastic pouches, and then given a raffle ticket to be able collect their phone once they leave the shul's premises! We've been known to collect more than 50 phones on particularly bad weeks!!
Equally appalling was the response of another shul-goer on Yom Kippur, who felt there was absolutely nothing wrong with his child playing on his games console in shul, during the service, and who responded by saying "well, at least he's not making any noise"! Not making any noise?!?!?! Hello!! This is a synagogue...we are here to pray, thank G-d, celebrate being Jewish (and have a bit of a natter with our friends)!
In the meantime, everybody's gone CRAP, I mean CRP crazy. Of course, everyone wants their child to attend a Jewish school, so they turn up to register on a Shabbat (and then often leave immediately). Ask them WHY they want Jewish schools for these kids, and it's usually because they don't want their darlings mixing with the 'local' kids...not because they actively want their children to have a Jewish education which will be supported at home and by going to shul regularly.
Until there is a consolidated approach to dealing with this obvious decline in shul-going standards, led by the United Synagogue, whereby people know that whatever orthodox shul they attend they'll be subject to the same high standards of conduct, this ever-growing problem will not be resolved!!