Alternatives

Lisa Kaplan and Fay Kritzer play mah Jongg with Rhonda Mostyn and Wendi Zupmore.

A New Generati
yens

Young women who vowed they Of 1p I a
would never play mah jongg
are learning the game from
their predecessors.
JENNIFER FINER JEWISH NEWS INTERN

L

ike so many other
women from the
thirty-something
generation, Rhonda
Mostyn swore she
would never play
mah jongg.
"I thought it was an old lady's
game," she said.
Now, after playing the game
for over a year, she's addicted.
Lisa Kaplan, who plays with
Ms. Mostyn, said she would
never play the game either be-
cause it was something she al-
ways associated with her
mother and "older women."
"When I was first asked to
play I said, 'No way, I'm too
young for this,' " Ms. Kaplan
said. "My husband was the one
who actually convinced me to
give it a try and I was hooked."

Ms. Mostyn and Ms. Kaplan,
along with Wendi Zupmore,
Heidi Coffinan and Fay Kritzer,
who range in age from 30 to 40,
look forward to playing mah
jongg every Thursday night.
They say they enjoy the game
because it gives them a chance
to be social and have fun with-
out spending a lot of money.
While women of all ages are
avid mah-jongg players, it
seems these younger women
have become the next new gen-
eration of players.
"When you're young and sin-
gle, it's easier for you to go out
at night," Ms. Zupmore said.
"But with a family, you have
time and money constraints, yet
you want to be able to get out
once in a while. Mah jongg is
the perfect solution and once

you get into it, it's really addic-
tive."
This game is so attractive
that some groups, including
this one, even hold mah-jongg
marathons, renting a hotel
room and playing all night.
Elaine Mostyn, who has
been playing mah jongg for 30
years, thinks her daughter
Wendy and daughter-in-law
Rhonda started playing the
game "at the right time in their
lives."
"There was a time when
Wendy was not interested and
could not understand the con-
cept of mah jongg," Mrs.
Mostyn said. "But then, as she
and her friends got older, they
seemed to have this desire for
something different.
"Some of my friends now
play other games because they
say mah jongg is boring. I guess
it's a stage you go through.
Some people play forever and
others move on to new games."
Almost three years ago,
Karen Rosenberg, now 34,
Paula Levy, now 29, and a
handful of other women decid-
ed they wanted to play mah
jongg.
"We got together and learned
from our mothers and our
mothers-in-law," said Ms.
Rosenberg, whose group con-
sists of about 10 women who
play two separate games on
Thursday night.
Ms. Rosenberg and Ms. Levy
know a lot of women their age
who enjoy mah jongg. They cit-
ed tradition and an inexpensive
social outlet as reasons they
play the tile game.
Players compare mah jongg
to the card game gin rummy,
except mah jongg is played
with tiles, and hands are de-
termined yearly by the New
York-based National Mah
Jongg League.
The league was founded in
1937 to standardize the game
because women around the
country were playing so many
different versions, according to
Ruth Unger, league president.
A few weeks ago, the league
sponsored its eighth annual
mah-jongg cruise where 300
women participated in a mah-
jongg tournament at sea. Ms.
Unger said next year's Decem-
ber cruise is already booked.
Players say it takes time to
learn the game, which is actu-
ally an American adaptation of
an ancient Chinese pastime
that became popular in this
country in the 1920s.
Ms. Kritzer suggests learn-
ing how to play with a group so
that everyone in the group
plays at the same level.
"I don't know how Jewish
women started playing a game
NEW GENERATION page 78