How Mahjong Helped Jews Become Americans

July 20 2021

In Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture, Annelise Heinz tells how this game, which originated in China during the 19th century, made its way to the U.S., and became especially popular with Jews—who, as Menachem Wecker notes in his review, often lived “cheek-by-jowl” with Chinese immigrant communities. Wecker writes:

The Americanized version of mahjong afforded Jewish Americans—and women in particular—“careful entry into the mainstream while still maintaining group distinctiveness by using a third reference point, China, to remain both outside and inside ‘domestic’ American culture,” Heinz writes in the book.

As interest in mahjong waned somewhat in the 1930s, Jews continued to play, and the game became associated increasingly with the Jewish community—and with Jewish women in particular.

The game spread among “snowbird” Jews in Florida retirement communities and those who vacationed in the “Borscht Belt” of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

Read more at Religion News Service

More about: American Jewry, Asian Americans, China

A Jewish Obligation to Vote

On October 3, 1984, Rabbi Moses Feinstein—a leading figure among American Orthodox Jews, whose halakhic opinions are obeyed and studied today—wrote a letter encouraging Jews to vote in the upcoming elections. Feinstein, a talmudist of the old school, was born in a shtetl in the vicinity of Minsk, then in the Russian empire, before elections were known in that country. He came to the U.S. in 1937, at the age of forty-one, to escape the ever-worsening persecution of devout Jews in the Soviet Union. That experience no doubt shaped his view of democracy. Herewith, the letter in full:

On reaching the shores of the United States, Jews found a safe haven. The rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights have allowed us the freedom to practice our religion without interference and to live in this republic in safety.

A fundamental principle of Judaism is hakaras hatov—recognizing benefits afforded us and giving expression to our appreciation. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each Jewish citizen to participate in the democratic system which safeguards the freedoms we enjoy. The most fundamental responsibility incumbent on each individual is to register and to vote.

Therefore, I urge all members of the Jewish community to fulfill their obligations by registering as soon as possible and by voting. By this, we can express our appreciation and contribute to the continued security of our community.

Read more at X

More about: 2024 Election, American Jewry, Democracy, Halakhah