THE DETROI T JE WISH NEWS

Skilled players arrange
and shuffle tiles.

14

The

•

A mah-jongg l b e Brigade
tournament
brings out
young and
not-so-young
competitors.

JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER

PHOTOS BY JOHN M. DISCHER

bout 60 players re-
cently turned out for
a mah-jongg tourna-
ment at Temple
Emanu-El — a small
vanguard in the
growing segment of
mah-jongg fanatics.
Tournaments, sponsored by
the Temple Emanu-El Sister-
hood, are held every three
months at the Oak Park syna-
gogue and tend to draw close to
100 participants.
Ilene Monkman, who orga-

nizes the tournaments with Shel-
ley Steinberg, compares mah-
jongg, which originated in China,
to gin rummy, except that the
game is played with tiles. And
it's no longer a pastime for
grandmothers. The top-prize
winner this time around was
Karen Rosen, a thirty-ish play-
er. Second- and third-place prizes
went to women in their 20s and
30s.
The next tournament is set for
May 8.

❑

The mah-jongg tournament gets under way at Temple Emanu-El.

