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 on Religion News Service: https://religionnews.com/2021/07/13/game-changer-how-mahjong-helped-jewish-and-asian-americans-overcome-racism/