My shuls bathroom is beige, yours is probably painted beige as well, it may be gray or some sort of sky blue, but most shul bathrooms are painted beige. I’m not sure about the ladies bathrooms, but I know that many of us men can pretty much say that most shul bathrooms suck. Yes, the colors are drab, but most important is the shul bathroom smell or stench, depending on how often you attend shul – because after a long while of 3 time per day attendance, you may get used to that shul bathroom stench. I can’t get used to the stench here, it’s permanent. You can get all the blue urinal cakes you want, add those post flush toilet bowl cleaners and load up on febreeze, but it will still stink.
Another sad issue with shul bathrooms is that no matter how much space there is, they always seem to be lacking in the room department. Shul bathrooms resemble bar bathrooms, you have to wait to wash your hands and listen to someone in the stall right behind you as you make way for someone else who wants to use the urinal. Some shuls don’t even put up those urinal cubicle walls and for some reason old Jewish men love whipping it out for all to see, maybe its got something to with going naked in the JCC shvitz.
I will put it to the readers, but I am curious as to which shul bathroom issue is worse, the stink or those little squares that all shuls try to pass off as toilet paper. In order to combat the issue of ripping toilet paper and the other issue of overpriced tissues – shuls across the land have always had (as far back as I can remember) these little flimsy square pieces of rough not quite tissue/not quite paper towel papers that are dispensed out of a rusty little box nailed to the side of the stall. Usually one has to really yank on them and in order to do a proper wipe, you need a whole bunch of em. Would you rather proper toilet paper, or a nice smelling bathroom?
The redeeming factor of shul bathrooms is that the urinals are usually large and the toilets are usually so old that they flush properly. Pre-green environmental nut job toilet bowls can really flush and that;s a good thing after a nice bowl of cholent.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
worst shul bathroom I’ve seen in a long time (not including little shteibles) is the Boat Shul in Toronto. You def wanna make sure your shoes are tied before you step in there….
That’s a really good question. Id have to go with clean tho bec I haven’t dumped at a shul in years. When I was a kid I would’ve prob said good tp tho.
The unresolved Comfort Women issue requires attention.
Our shul has mismatch tiles and wallpaper but the worst part is the toilet papert. The TP is not on a roll but rather little pieces of paper in a dispenser on the wall. In order to get a good wipe you have to take 20 sheets to avoid soiling you hands. After that great experience there is a long used up bottle of Adwe Shabbos soap to clean up with. I try to wait until I get home but….
Conservative Shuls usualyl have beautiful bathrooms!
the little toilet paper sheets are called “butt tickets”.
Also – the cleaning lady always goes through the mens bathroom while men are doing their needs…you never see a male cleaning man going through the womens bathroom
I swear I’m not making this up – you know the drain holes at the bottom of the urinal? At my parent’s shul, those holes form the shape of a magen dovid.
That’s just….wrong.
actually there are an awful lot of urinals with a magen dovid shaped drainage, i had notcied that years ago.
I have seen that sort of thing too
I’ve also seen ones that looked like crosses and eight-spoked wheels. It’s a Satanic plot to make us pee on religious symbols.
I’ve never run into a problem in a women’s room at shul, although I’ve only used one Orthodox shul restroom. I have run into ones where you have to wait in line for stall but that happens anywhere you go with large numbers of people hitting the restooms around the same time (after a service, performance, whatever).
Oz upper west side
If you want an awesome shul bathroom, go to Rabbi Berger’s shul (Kol Torah) in Baltimore. The whole shul is gorgeous, but the bathrooms are especially beautiful.
Womens Shul johns are always way nicer than mens. If i ever have to dump during the week or early shabbos, i always use the womens bathroom.
In my shul the women come just as often as the men. But we’re not Orthodox.
The real reason for the shabbos butt-tickets is because, the rabbis didnt know what to do with the “losing the minyan during krias hatora caus all the guy were horny from peeking over the machitza and needing to blow thier load” problem. . solution? make tissue that cuts and a nonslippery soap!
The tiny old Orthodox shul I grew up at had this old sanctuary that dated back to about 1912. It had a single neither-gender bathroom (probably built in the 1920s, probably after indoor plumbing became expected) at the back, obviously grafted onto the rear of the original building. It was TOTALLY creepy, dark, cold, and terrifying to 7-year-old me. Every time somebody flushed, it was so loud as to cause a hefsek during davening.