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28

December 21 • 2017

jn

National Champ

WSU med student wins
National Rummikub tournament.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

F

or as long as he can remem-
ber, first-year Wayne State
University medical student
Josh Morof, 23, played Rummikub,
the tiled game akin to gin rummy,
with his family.
“Whenever the extended family
would get together or go on vaca-
tion Up North, Rummikub was the
game we liked to play every time,”
the West Bloomfield resident said.
“We would each claim that we were
the best player, and then tease each
other for taking loads of time mess-
ing up the board to get out that one
last tile.”
On Nov. 19, Morof proved not
only to his family but to the nation
that he is indeed the champ as he
returned home from Chicago victo-
rious from the National Rummikub
Championship. Every three years,
contestants compete in four lighten-
ing rounds and are allowed only 40
seconds to complete their turn.
As the winner, he received a free
trip to Jerusalem, where the interna-
tional competition is slated for next
November. Family members, which
include sister Rachel, 20, a junior at
Michigan State University, and par-
ents, Sherri and Gary, are vying for
the other free ticket to accompany
him to Israel — that’s if the event
does not overlap with next year’s
med school examination schedule.
Before he started medical school,
Morof took a gap year and found
that playing Rummikub online or
in person with family and friends
became a great social outlet. He
learned about the Chicago tourna-
ment a month beforehand through a
Rummikub Facebook group, figured
he would see some friends there if

he qualified and began training in
earnest.
“Truth be told, there were no qual-
ifying rounds to enter the tourna-
ment, but there were only 24 spots
maximum,” Morof said. “When I got
there, it felt like a synagogue social
hall. A lot of the contestants hap-
pened to be Jewish.”
Indeed, the game has Jewish roots.
According to the game manufactur-
er, the game was first invented and
manufactured in Israel in the 1940s
by Hungarian immigrant Ephraim
Hertzano as a tiled alternative to
the card game gin rummy. When the
game became even more popular, it
was eventually brought to Europe
and the United States.
When he is not honing his skills at
Rummikub or taking notes at a med-
ical lecture, Morof helps build the
Jewish community at WSU where
he plans social events and Shabbat
dinners with the Jewish Medical
Students Association.
Morof said winning the game is
part strategy but mostly pure luck.
Tournament contestants played four
games where the goal was to win
each round or at least end the game
with the least number of unused,
low-value tiles. Morof won the tour-
nament by winning the first and last
game and only losing the second
and third games with one relatively
low-valued tile in his hand.
“When playing Rummikub, my
plan is to never go out using the
joker, and not to play all of your best
tiles at once,” Morof said. “But in the
end, it’s pure luck. I won because I
picked some really good tiles, espe-
cially the last round.” •