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Some cultures have non-verbal greetings (e.g., https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/handshake-alternatives-gestures-around-world-trnd/index.html) and these are being recommended in lieu of a handshake due to the covid-19 pandemic. Does Judaism have any such non-verbal greetings?

Yehuda W
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  • Air-handshake (like the rebbeim do)... A nod and a tip of the hat were also common when more Jews had hats. – Harel13 Apr 17 '20 at 13:10
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    a chai five? ;) – rosends Apr 17 '20 at 13:12
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    We designated one last Purim: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/100803/2 – Isaac Moses Apr 17 '20 at 13:31
  • Many Hassidic and Yeshivish do a type of a head nod. It's hard to describe of you've never seen it. Kind of tilted to the side a bit. Sometimes comes with a smile or a type of surprised expression or a combination of both. – user6591 Apr 17 '20 at 14:10
  • @Harel13 Do you have a video of that type of air handshake? – Yehuda W Apr 17 '20 at 14:30
  • @YehudaW I can't find anything at the moment. It's something that's usually done after tishes (on Shabbat) where there are so many people that not everyone can reach the rebbe to shake his hand, so the rebbe just does a handshake motion in the are several times around the room, and the crowd responds similarly. – Harel13 Apr 17 '20 at 14:58
  • A sideways head nod? That's a "cool teenage boy" thing in Ireland. – TRiG Apr 20 '20 at 08:30

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There is indeed a Jewish non-verbal greeting mentioned by Solomon Maimon in Chapter One of his autobiography in the 18th Century:

Jews with their wagons comprised part of it, and whenever a Jew passed through our village (something that happened quite often), he had to stop at my grandfather's inn, where someone would come outside to greet him with a glass of brandy, making the sign of shalam with one hand, and giving him a glass with the other.

(My emphasis)

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Alex
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    Sounds interesting, but what was this "sign of shalam". – Yehuda W Apr 17 '20 at 15:46
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    With 100% seriousness, we need to dig up this information and re-boot this meme. – Isaac Moses Apr 17 '20 at 15:53
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    @YehudaW I don’t know what it was. But from the way it’s written it sounds like something that a contemporaneous reader would be expected to be familiar with. – Alex Apr 17 '20 at 15:55