GAME ON! How Mah Jongg Saved Quarantine

By Jodi Cohen

Married for 50+ years, Eli and Miriam* weren’t worried about settling into what would be a very long quarantine. They were both “at-risk” and had weathered many tough times before COVID-19 without the help of streaming television. They were quite content to binge watch a variety of shows to fill their days.

It was a Monday — around the 35th day of quarantine sometime around 3 p.m. when they realized, they had watched everything on their list...and they snapped.

By week’s end, Eli became a grouchy curmudgeon and Miriam became an annoying naggy nelly –— at least that’s how they explained it to me.

Then, Miriam discovered an online version of their favorite game — Mah Jongg — and it was GAME ON!

Mah Jongg was first played in China in the 1800s. An ex-pat brought the game back to New York City in the mid-1900s, where it was picked up by mostly Jewish Americans. They played at home and while vacationing at their Catskill bungalow colonies. This led to the game’s standardization in 1937, by the newly-formed National Mah Jongg League, which rules over the game to this day.

Since then, every year, like clockwork, the League changes the hands and rules to add more excitement to the game, and releases a new official “card”. It is the event that the “Maajh” eagerly await year in year out.

Which brings me back to Eli and Miriam. With furrowed brows, they intensely study their IPads and their cards as the computer-simulated voice yells, “1 Bam,” “2 Crak”, “1 Dot”…and finally…Mah Jongg! After a friendly banter about their hands, they laugh, smile, and begin again….

And that’s how Mah Jongg saved Quarantine.

* Not their real names Jodi Cohen is a seasoned communications leader and journalist in Charlotte, NC. You can get in touch with her by emailing quagenics@gmail. com.

Want to learn how to play Mah Jongg? Here's a great place to start.

https://youtu.be/5RrAVYpuOuw

Each year, the National Mah Jongg League donates proceeds from the sales of the League’s Official Rule Cards to Hadassah. When you order your card through Hadassah, $1.50 is raised for each card sold. Last year more than $850 was raised in this way. Hadassah uses these funds to support Hadassah Medical Center, a leading research hospital in Israel. The Charlotte chapter is part of the 360 Degrees of Healing campaign and has pledged to fund a new nurses’ station in the newly renovated Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. You have until January 15 to order your cards. For ordering information visit https:// www.hadassahcltevents. org/.