Rummikub

Game | Ages 8+ | 2-4 players

Ever wonder how your favorite game of numbers, patterns, and logic came to be? Well, it's all because of an Israeli!

How did it start?

Efraim Herztano was born to a Jewish family in Romania and raised his own family there through the end of World War II before they immigrated to what is now Israel in the late 1940s. During the war, Romania was under the Communist regime, which had outlawed all card games!

Not wanting to lose the magic of games altogether, Efraim came up with a game that uses tiles- a combination of the card game rummy, and the Chinese tile game Mahjong, to find a game for his children without breaking the law. After the war, when his family moved to Israel, Efraim continued to develop the game which became known later as Rummikub, in his backyard in Bat Yam. He began selling this game from door to door, and in privately owned shops. But it spread like wildfire, and the game soon became Israel’s top exported game. In 1977, it was the most popular game in America, and in 1980, won the “Game of the Year” award in Germany!

How to play

Rummikub is a game designed for 2-4 players and uses tiles numbered from 1-13, in four different colors. Players are asked to create specific patterns and sequences using these tiles, with the ability to build on already created ones by other players. It is a game of puzzles and problem solving and is fun for all ages. It can be found being played during school recess, in family homes on Shabbat afternoons, and even in old age homes!

Come back to your Israeli roots with the "Sabra" version of Rummikub.

The most popular version worldwide - talk about Israeli pride!