Shuls avoid handshakes to thwart H1N1

TORONTO — The elbow bump is replacing the handshake – at least for some shul-goers concerned about the H1N1 flu virus – at several synagogues in Toronto and elsewhere.

Allen Weinberg, left, and Beth David ritual director Michael Rubin demonstrate a handshake alternative. [Frances Kraft photo]

Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, senior rabbi of Beth Tzedec Congregation, says his congregants started using the elbow bump in 2003 during the SARS crisis.

“I  think in Toronto we’re much more conscious of all of this, because we went through the SARS epidemic. I think we may be more prepared as a city because of what happened.”

At Beth Tzedec, clergy have been encouraging people to refrain from embracing, kissing and shaking hands since before the High Holidays, the rabbi told The CJN last week.

He continues to greet worshippers in a receiving line at the end of Shabbat services, but instead of shaking hands, he said, “We bump elbows, do fist bumps. Sometimes I’ll do a little bow, so I’m acknowledging people, I’m welcoming them.

“We don’t want to be vectors for disease, but we nonetheless want to be friendly,” he said. “People here joke about it, but they understand.

“If a number of people shake my hand, I can go wash my hand,” he said. “But the real problem is, if someone who has an illness shakes my hand, that I could be a transmitter.

Rabbi Martin Berman of Shaar Shalom Synagogue expressed the same concern. On Shmini Atzeret, Oct. 10, handshaking was discontinued during the Torah procession, when the Torah is carried around the synagogue. Instead, smiles, greetings and nods have replaced the handshake, he said.

“It’s reasonable with large groups of people that we take at least some minimal precautions,” Rabbi Berman said. “As the flu season gets worse, we may have to get more strict.”

Synagogues, like many other institutions, now commonly provide alcohol-based hand sanitizers, sometimes in multiple locations.

H1N1 is spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes and germs enter the nose, eyes, or throat of another person, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s website.  

Germs can also rest on hard surfaces and be picked up on hands, then transmitted to the respiratory system by touching the mouth or nose.

According to the agency, H1N1 “has caused primarily mild illness in Canada, but Canadians need to be prepared to respond to a potentially more severe form of the virus that may emerge this fall.”

At Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Congregation, ritual director Michael Rubin announced its new H1N1-related policy on the same day a similar announcement was made at Shaar Shalom. He asked congregants not to take it as an affront if clergy don’t shake their hands.

Five days later, at Beth David’s Thursday morning service last week, Ted Cohen appeared bemused after receiving an aliyah to the Torah.

“I don’t know whether to shake or elbow,” he said.

Initial elbow bumps he received, accompanied by congratulatory wishes of “yasher koach,” gave way to more familiar handshakes as he made his way to the back of the chapel.

“Like any habit, it takes a while,” said Rubin. “People are getting used to it. Most people said it makes sense.”

Rubin admitted to missing the handshakes. “You want to have that contact with people. Hopefully it will just be a temporary measure.”

The synagogue’s Shabbat bulletin now includes a notice, based on Public Health recommendations, advising people to wash hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and hot water or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer; to sneeze or cough into a sleeve or arm if a tissue is not available, and to stay home when ill with flu-like symptoms.

H1N1 is a respiratory illness that almost always causes cough and fever. Other common symptoms are fatigue, muscle aches, sore throat, headache, decreased appetite and runny nose, and sometimes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

At Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, Rabbi Chaim Strauchler spoke from the pulpit before the High Holidays requesting that people with flu symptoms stay home and advising them that in such cases, the synagogue would arrange to have someone blow the shofar for them at home.

He also emphasized that even though “washing for pleasure” is prohibited on Yom Kippur, when there is the possibility of contagion, such as after people sneeze or cough into their hands, they are required to wash them.

Although handshaking is “very much part of the culture” at the synagogue, Rabbi Strauchler has noticed that some people have started using alternatives including “sleeve pulls” or taking hold of the other person’s forearm.

“Judaism requires us to look after our health,” he said.